Fury of the Wolf
by teh-ena
Summary: Rose Tyler and the metacrisis Doctor have built a happy life for themselves in the alternate universe. But when the "Bad Wolf" phrase starts appearing and Pete's World is threatened by an old enemy, it is up to Rose and the Doctor to defend the Earth at all costs.
1. Bad Wolf

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the awesomeness that is the Doctor Who universe.

A/N: This is the first Doctor Who story that I've ever written, so I'm a bit nervous about posting this. I really like the idea that I have for this story, so I really want to make sure that I get it written out well. That being said, please, please let me know what you think of it and if you have any criticisms or suggestions for improvement! I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the story!

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**Chapter 1 – Bad Wolf**

_A soft melody rang throughout Rose Marion Tyler's mind, seeming to touch her very soul. She walked through a peaceful field of wildflowers, filled with warmth from the two suns that hung high overhead in the bright, blue sky. As the young woman raised her face to the suns, basking in their glow, the music brought to mind times long past and the excitement of countless adventures yet to come. She could almost see the song on the wind, golden words floating around her body like moths around a flame. Rose reached out to run her fingers through the strands of gold in the air as she laughed with pure joy. Peace and calm filled her entire being, but a foreboding note lurked in the background of the music. Rose slowed her walk to a stop, a frown gracing her features as she concentrated on that note, trying to decipher the peril that it promised. If only she could focus harder, maybe she could hear what it said. Maybe she could see what storm was approaching and prevent the destruction that would come in its wake, maybe—_

The buzzing of an alarm clock jarred Rose awake, and one of her arms flailed out from underneath the covers to stop the annoyance. With a groan, she buried her head underneath the warm blankets once more. The sound of soft laughter brought a scowl to her face, and she grumpily threw the blankets off of herself to glare at the adorable man lying next to her, propped up on one arm.

The man that she called her husband, also known as the Doctor, the Human-Time Lord Metacrisis, the Oncoming Storm, and many, many other names, gave her one of his irresistibly sexy smirks in an attempt to alleviate Rose's early-morning annoyance. He laid on top of the mussed blankets, already dressed in his trademark brown, pinstriped suit that he had insisted on replacing as soon as possible after being abandoned in Pete's World. Underneath the suit, he had on a simple, blue t-shirt, and the look was completed with a pair of well-worn blue trainers. Rose took a minute to admire him before roughly rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"You're beautiful when you first wake up," the Doctor crooned as he looked on fondly at the mess of golden hair tangled all around her face.

"You say that every morning," Rose grumbled, finding his propensity to be wide awake in the mornings quite annoying.

"And every morning it's true," the Doctor gently pushed her hair out of her face and kissed her with so much love and emotion that Rose felt as though her knees would have given out had she been standing.

"Good morning, Love," he said with a broad smile as he pulled away from the kiss.

"Morning," Rose replied, her hatred of mornings unable to diminish the big, tongue-in-teeth smile that she returned to him. It still amazed her that this wonderful man was all hers, and that she was his in return. It had been five years since being left at Bad Wolf Bay by the other Doctor. For three of those years, this Doctor and Rose had been happily married.

Rose reluctantly removed herself from the trappings of their bed to prepare for work. Once she was properly clad in black dress slacks, a dark pink top, and shoes that she could easily run in (a wise habit to maintain), the delicious smell of breakfast lured her into the kitchen. She leaned against the kitchen door frame, silently watching the Doctor as he cooked. He had adapted quite well to the domestic life. Surprisingly well, in fact. Sure, they still had adventures (and working for Torchwood, there were plenty of them), but there was always quiet little moments like this where Rose couldn't help but feel like the two of them had been so very gifted to have this second chance at life and love.

"Could you grab the bananas?" The Doctor asked, startling Rose out of her reverie.

"Always with the bananas," Rose teased with a smile as she grabbed two of them off of the counter and placed them on the kitchen table. The Doctor met her at the table with two plates of food.

The couple ate breakfast in peaceful silence, each simply taking comfort in the other's presence. This was a part of their normal morning routine (and what a thought, the two of them with a normal routine!), but neither would have changed it for the world. Rose pulled out her mobile as she ate, checking her electronic calendar to see what meetings she had planned for the day. The Doctor idly read a newspaper while she did so, although Rose failed to notice when he frowned at something within its pages and quickly glanced up at her with concern. He immediately covered up his reaction when Rose began to speak.

"Don't forget, Jake's invited us out tomorrow night," Rose commented, still intent on the phone in her hand.

"Right, yeah," The Doctor replied distractedly as he quickly folded up the newspaper and sat on it to hide it from view.

"And Mum wants us to have a family dinner with her this weekend," Rose added, not noticing the strange behavior of her husband.

"Aww, do we have to, Rose?" the Doctor whined.

"Yes," she looked up at him with a smirk, "she's still mad about you telling Tony of the adventure with the Gelth. He hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep since, keeps saying they'll take over his body in his sleep."

"I told him you had to be dead first," the Doctor protested.

"Oh yeah, that helped," Rose rolled her eyes. "Avoiding my mum at this point will only earn you another slap."

"Fine," the Doctor sighed, rubbing his cheek as he remembered the now-all-too-familiar pain that came with an infamous Tyler slap. Mother-in-laws were difficult, he was learning, especially when your mother-in-law was Jackie Tyler. Three years of being officially part of the Tyler clan, and he had yet to learn how to keep Jackie Tyler happy with him. He doubted that he ever would.

"Oh!" Rose exclaimed suddenly as she caught sight of the time, "I better go, I'm gonna be late for work."

As she took a final bite of toast and gathered her things in a hurry, the Doctor stopped Rose just long enough for a proper goodbye kiss.

"I love you, my Rose," he replied with a smile as she pulled away from the kiss.

"I love you, too, my Doctor," she responded lovingly before bolting out of the door.

* * *

Mornings went by far too slowly when there were no end-of-the-world crises to occupy Rose's time at work. She was now head of the Department of Alien Encounters at Torchwood, but that brought very little excitement when she was forced to spend most of her time participating in bureaucratic drivel. Currently, she was listening via speakerphone to a boring conference call about performance measurements that she wasn't even vaguely interested in. Her fingers idly tapped out a pattern on the surface of the desk as she scanned through the hundred or so emails that she had received since the previous day.

_Weather balloon, Confused human, Rift activity, _Rose thought monotonously as she scanned through the emails one by one, looking for something that required her attention.

Being the head of a department, there were many projects under her control that she had to keep track of. Many of them weren't even brought to her attention until something bad happened. But much to Rose's frustration, nothing interesting seemed to be requiring her attention today. That is, until she noticed an email about a project that she had almost looked right over: the Bad Wolf project.

_Bad Wolf? _Rose's thoughts whirred about frantically. _No, it can't be. That was resolved ages ago._

Bad Wolf was a message that struck a chord of both hope and dread in Rose. She couldn't remember the events at the Game Station after the Doctor had sent her away in his TARDIS, so many years ago and yet far in the future in a distant universe that she would never see again. She remembered seeing Bad Wolf written all over the Powell Estate and interpreting it as a message that she could be reunited with her Doctor. She remembered prying open the TARDIS and hearing the faint sound of music, but after that her memories felt as though they had been wiped clean with a blank, white wall put in their place. The Doctor had once explained that she had somehow brought about the destruction of the Daleks and that he had been hurt badly enough during the attack to cause his regeneration. Rose felt as though he had omitted some of the details, but she never pressed him for them.

Once, Rose had even used those two words herself as a message for Donna to tell the Doctor, her own little private joke to let him know that she was coming back to him. But to see the words now, when she was so happy living this life with her own version of the Doctor? It was unsettling, to say the least.

Rose quickly scanned the contents of the email, looking for the person in charge of the Bad Wolf project. Once she found the name and his office number, she all but ran out of her office and down the hall to find the person in question.

* * *

"Good morning, Ma'am," a startled man in his late twenties greeted Rose as she unceremoniously barged into his office.

Ordinarily, Rose would have admonished him for his use of "Ma'am", but as it was, she had more pressing matters on her mind.

"What's the Bad Wolf Project?" Rose demanded, her cheeks still flushed from her sprint down the hallway.

The young man stumbled over his words for a moment, confused and unsure, before answering, "It's just a basic surveillance project. A few months ago, we noticed that our monitoring equipment was receiving a strange signal from within the orbit of the Earth. We tested it thoroughly but we were unable to determine what was emitting the signal. Eventually, it was decided that it wasn't a threat, but we've been keeping tabs on it ever since just in case."

"How can you know that it isn't a threat?" Rose asked curiously.

"The signal doesn't seem to match any of the alien technology that we've seen before, and there hasn't been any changes in the signal since we first discovered it. The project consists of actively monitoring the signal for any changes, but there's not much we can do besides that."

"Okay," Rose nervously ran a hand through her golden-blonde hair as she processed the information. A strange signal in space, that could be dangerous. But a strange signal that hadn't registered as dangerous alien tech and that hadn't changed in months? That was much less likely to be dangerous. "Where'd you get the project name?"

"Bad Wolf? It was just some name from a children's bedtime story. We thought it sounded nice."

"Yeah, okay." Rose tried to calm her shaking hands and wildly beating heart. _Just a coincidence, then. _"Let me know right away if there's any changes, yeah?"

"Of course, Ma'am," the man replied obediently.

"And stop it with the Ma'am, it's just Rose."

"Yes, Ma'am. Er, Agent Tyler," The young man peered at Rose nervously from behind his thick glasses.

_Good enough_, Rose thought as she turned around left the lab, trying her best to shrug off the feeling of unease that had crept up on her.

* * *

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully, and Rose buried herself with paperwork in an attempt to forget about the morning's events. It became apparent that she had forgotten to eat lunch when her secretary brought in a plate of food and the day's newspaper.

"Oh right, thanks," Rose replied gratefully as her secretary left the office.

Rose took a break from her work to read the newspaper while she ate her lunch. A headline on the second page of the paper caused her to freeze with a chunk of sandwich halfway to her lips.

_The Big Bad Wolf Returns?_

_Rumors have been running rampant about a possible return of the popular TV show, The Big Bad Wolf. While we have not confirmed these rumors, it is possible that..._

After years of not seeing even a hint of 'Bad Wolf', those two words that meant so much had now appeared twice within one day. Rose was quickly becoming frightened. Bad Wolf had been a message, leading her back to the Doctor. But she had her Doctor now, waiting for her back at their home doing whatever it was that he did during the day while she was away at work. So what could Bad Wolf mean this time? Was her Doctor in trouble, or would he soon be in trouble? Was it telling her to hurry home to him? Or was it something else, something to do with the original Doctor, the one that she tried so hard not to think about anymore, sealed off in her old universe and living a fantastic life without her?

_Okay_, Rose thought with rising panic, _Not the Bad Wolf returning, not the original Doctor returning, just some TV show with a stupid name. And a Torchwood project with no apparent threat._

Rose shook her head to clear her thoughts. She was being silly. Here she was, head of the Department of Alien Encounters at Torchwood, happily married to a version of the Doctor, safe and sound on this alternate Earth with her family. There was nothing to worry about but her paranoid self picking out ordinary words from ordinary life.

Then, Rose noticed the wrapper on the sandwich that her secretary had brought her: Bad Wolf Subs.

_Okay, that's it_, she thought as she hurriedly pulled out her mobile and dialed the Doctor's personal phone.

He didn't answer. She rang him five times, but still, he never answered.

With a racing heart and mind, Rose scooped up the sandwich along with her jacket, keys, and purse and ran out of her office, offering some vague excuse to her secretary as to why she needed to leave before hurtling out of Torchwood, driving home as fast as she dared.

* * *

Rose didn't even bother closing the front door as she ran in to their house, calling out loudly for the Doctor. He had to be here somewhere. He couldn't be in trouble. If there had been trouble, he would have let her know. Trouble always found them, but they always greeted it head on, with excitement, together. She popped her head into their bedroom, the bathroom, the study with its piles of books haphazardly strewn across the floor. No sign of the Doctor. Finally, Rose allowed herself a moment to pause and consider the situation. That was when she heard a loud racket coming from out back.

It took mere seconds before Rose had flung open the back door, running full out into the garage in back of the house that the Doctor loved to tinker in. There, she found his long, slender legs—not in mortal peril, as she had previously thought—but sticking out from underneath his newest project, a classic car of some sort or another. Loud music blasted from a radio, and she heard a dull thud followed by swearing in a language that she vaguely recognized as Gallifreyan. The Doctor's hand suddenly shot out from underneath the car, blindly patting the ground in search for a particular tool. Rose knelt down and grasped his hand with hers, holding on to it like a lifeline to reassure herself that everything was okay.

"Oh!" The Doctor exclaimed with surprise at the unexpected touch, causing his head to automatically rise up and slam into the bottom of the car above him. More swearing ensued and Rose allowed herself a small laugh.

The Doctor extracted his hand from hers and slid out from underneath the car to sit up and look at Rose inquisitively. He was covered in grease, with a red mark on his forehead from where he must have hit it on the underneath of the car. His hair stuck up at all angles, and Rose drank in the sight of him like she was dying of thirst and he was a giant pail of water.

When the Doctor noticed the look of terror on Rose's face, he immediately enveloped her in a tight embrace. She returned it, clinging to him as he ran his fingers soothingly through her hair.

"Hey, it's okay. It's all right," the Doctor comforted Rose, trying to calm her down. He hadn't seen her this panicked in a very long time. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay, everyone's okay," Rose rambled. "But there was this project, and then the newspaper, and the sandwich, and then you weren't answering your phone, and then I couldn't find you, and-"

The Doctor cut off her frantic babbling by capturing her lips with his in a manner that made her briefly forget that she had anything at all on her mind except for the feel of his lips on hers and the warmth of his breath caressing her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm just being stupid," Rose said with a sigh after they had broken apart from their kiss.

"You are never stupid, Rose Tyler. You are the most brilliant person that I know. Besides me, of course. I'm a genius," The Doctor shot her a cheeky grin. "So tell me, what is it? Something to do with a project and the newspaper? And—oh, this morning's newspaper. So you saw that, too?"

"Yeah."

"And it has something to do with a project—at Torchwood, I assume?—and a sandwich...still trying to figure that last one out."

Rose pulled the half-eaten sandwich out of her purse and handed it to him.

"Well, ham and cheese, nothing wrong with that. Although mustard? Really, Rose? Mustard?" The Doctor gave her an admonishing look.

"That's not the point, Doctor. Look at the wrapper," Rose pointed at it.

_Bad Wolf Subs_, it read.

"Oh, right," the Doctor answered distractedly as a dreadful thought started to form within his mind. Not entirely wanting to know the answer, he asked, "So, the project then?"

"The Bad Wolf project. It's monitoring an unknown signal in Earth's orbit that's been there for at least a few months now. Supposedly, it's harmless. Hasn't changed at all. But with the name, and the other occurrences today, I'm thinking it's not such a good sign."

"Bad Wolf was never a bad sign," The Doctor replied as he sorted through his thoughts. "It's just, you know, usually followed by an attempted end-of-the-universe apocalypse. But that's never what the words were for."

"I know. They signaled that I could find my way back to you. But you're already here. And the words have only appeared once before, so who knows, maybe it does just warn of world-ending events. Or you know, it could be a coincidence, yeah?"

"Nothing's a coincidence, Rose. And the words appeared another time, too. When you came back to me with the dimension cannon."

"Yeah, but that doesn't count. I'm the one that told Donna to say it."

"Er, I may have left out a bit more of that story," the Doctor looked around sheepishly.

Rose put her hands on her hips as she gave him a stern look, waiting for him to continue.

After a moment's hesitation, he explained, "After Donna told me what you said—you see, we were on some alien planet, in the market with signs and normal stuff and all that the TARDIS hadn't quite felt like translating—then, everything changed to read Bad Wolf. Signs, posters, even the TARDIS."

"The TARDIS?" Rose gasped in shock.

"Yes, the TARDIS. As in, the Police Call Box Sign, the instructions on the front door, everything just repeating the words 'Bad Wolf' over and over again. It shouldn't have been possible. Only you, my Rose, could accomplish so many impossible things in one day."

"But I didn't do that," she argued, not quite believing him. "I only told Donna to say the words to you."

The Doctor suppressed the noise of disagreement that fought to rip from his chest. She must have done it, she just didn't know that she had. Couldn't know, for fear of her mind burning and universes ending and the enormous amounts of guilt that would undoubtedly come with unlocking those memories. She must have done so back at the Game Station, scattering the words both backwards and forwards in their relative times, seeing both their separation and their eventual reunion. He had wished many times before that the Bad Wolf could have warned him somehow, given him some signal to keep them away from the events that occurred at Canary Wharf.

"Right, well there's no point in sitting here worrying," The Doctor said as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I want to take a look at this Bad Wolf project."


	2. Signals and Revelations

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, nor am I making any profit off of this. I'm simply enjoying playing around with the characters like they're part of my own personal doll house.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's reading this story! It really means a lot to me! I do have most of it drafted up now, so I plan on keeping a regular posting schedule. Once again, please let me know what you think! Are the characters' voices coming across right?

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**Chapter 2 – Signals and Revelations**

Within the hour, Rose was back in her office at Torchwood with the Doctor. He worked as a consultant for the Department of Alien Artifacts, so it was a fairly common sight to see him there. He often met Rose for lunch, and they had worked as partners on numerous projects in the past. Everyone at Torchwood seemed to know about the infamous duo.

The Doctor slipped on his 'sexy specs', as Rose liked to call them, and she showed him the email that she had received that morning about the Bad Wolf Project along with a set of documents that the young man in charge of the project had sent to her office while she was away.

As the Doctor poured over the documents with his reading glasses on, Rose silently paced the length of the room. _Project, newspaper, sandwich,_ she repeated over and over in her mind, trying to find some link between the three. Surveillance_, TV show, food_... She had yet to find a connection, besides the fact that the words 'Bad Wolf' seemed to be chasing her. Maybe that was the connection, simply someone trying to get her attention for some reason or another.

"You're going to wear a hole in the floor," the Doctor admonished as he peered over his glasses at Rose.

She reluctantly stopped her pacing to ask, "Do you have any idea what's causing the signal?"

"Welll," the Doctor drew out the word in a way that only he could, "it could be any number of things. Space junk, an alien, an alien ship. Or it could be nothing at all, simply a rogue signal being broadcast from some other time or some other place that happens to be coming through right above the Earth. You lot are always sending signals of some sort, it's like you're just asking to be found."

"So basically, you don't know what it is."

"Nope," He said popping the 'p'. "But doesn't that just make it more exciting?"

A wide grin spread across the Doctor's face, and Rose found herself unable to keep one of her own forming in response.

"It's only exciting if it amounts to something interesting, Doctor."

"Quite right. So, let's do some more investigating before we get our hopes up, then. Where's this signal being tracked at?"

Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand and led him down the hallway to the lab that she had been in earlier that morning. She tried to introduce the Doctor to the head of the lab, but the pinstriped man instantly skittered off to the technical equipment in the room and began twisting dials and pushing buttons.

"Hang on, you can't do that!" The head of the lab, the young man that Rose had spoken to that morning, tried to peel the Doctor away from his precious equipment.

"I think you'll find that I just did," the Doctor replied stubbornly as he scanned over the readouts from one of the machines.

"But this is very sensitive equipment, and-"

"That's Dr. John Tyler, consultant for the Alien Artifacts department," Rose quickly interrupted before an argument could break out. "He knows what he's doing and he's got clearance to be in here."

"Just the Doctor, thanks," the Doctor said by way of introduction.

"Sorry, he likes to insult people when he's stressed," Rose apologized to the lab technician for her strange husband.

"I do not!" The Doctor said, looking up from a readout on one of the machines.

"He does. He's rude and not ginger."

The lab technician gave her a funny look, as though he thought Rose may have lost her mind. There were certainly plenty of rumors flying around Torchwood about Rose and Dr. Tyler and the strange antics that they got themselves into often. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Rose grinned at each other like loons over their little inside joke.

The Doctor began typing away at a keyboard while Rose discussed the project with the employees in the lab. Suddenly, he looked up from the machine's monitor with a frantic look to point at the lab technician, "You! Yes, you, head lab guy, you! Sorry, I didn't catch you name."

"Stephen," the lab technician that had been unhappy about the Doctor messing with his equipment replied.

"Right, Stephen, have you lot been able to decipher the signal that you're receiving?"

"No, none of our devices seemed to be able to recognize the technology."

The Doctor groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Right, yes, well you picked quite an accurate name for the project, then. The signal that you're receiving translates to the words 'Bad Wolf'."

"Nice coincidence!" Stephen replied happily.

"How many times do I have to tell you people?" The Doctor frantically waved his hands around to emphasize his point. "There is no such thing as a coincidence. Especially not one like this. There is something out there, transmitting that phrase for a reason. They didn't just wake up one morning and say, 'you know what, I want to mess with Planet Earth and send them a phrase from a nursery rhyme!'. They're doing this on purpose."

"Do you think it's actually the Bad Wolf?" Rose asked, excitement coursing through her veins at the same time that her heart constricted with terror.

"Ooh, who knows," the Doctor replied as his face lit up with pure excitement. "Could be, but my guess is it's something that knows of the Bad Wolf."

"What are you two going on about?" Stephen asked, feeling as though he had missed a huge part of the conversation.

"Welll," the Doctor said, drawing out the word, "there's something out there called the 'Bad Wolf' that seems to like following us around with words a lot."

"Um, okay then," Stephen was pretty sure now that the rumors of these two being crazy weren't too far off.

"Don't try to understand it. We still don't." Rose suggested with a kind smile.

"So then, as I see it we have two options now," The Doctor added as he bounced on the balls of his feet with joy. "One: We do nothing, and wait to see if whatever's out there shouting 'Bad Wolf' ever does something. Or, B: We push the big red proverbial button and return the signal to them to see if there really is something out there."

Rose and the Doctor grinned maniacally at each other, before simultaneously shouting, "Big red button!" and high-fiving each other.

"You two are mad," Stephen said, looking between the two.

"Yup!" Rose agreed happily.

While the Doctor got to work pulling out wires from one device and typing instructions into another, he explained, "It'll take too long to try to construct a new message with this primitive technology, so we'll just have to settle for pinging their message back to them."

"If anyone has the right to send about the message 'Bad Wolf', I think we do." Rose replied.

"You have no idea," the Doctor mumbled as he continued working.

Rose and Stephen, and a few bewildered lab technicians, looked on as the Doctor finished his work and animatedly hit the 'Enter' button on the keyboard with finality.

"There, all done," The Doctor proclaimed as he bubbled over with excitement. "The signal's been transmitted back to whatever's out there, hovering above the Earth so very patiently. Personally, I hate patience. I'm rubbish at it."

One of the devices on the desk beeped suddenly, and the Doctor rushed over to it to read the monitor attached to it.

"They've sent another signal! 'Surrender the Bad Wolf or the planet will be-" the Doctor's words cut off with an audible gulp, and the terror in his eyes as he stared at Rose made her blood run cold.

"What, Doctor? The planet will be what?" Rose asked with dread.

"Exterminated."

Immediately, Rose began barking out orders to the nearest Torchwood employees while the Doctor muttered under his breath and furiously typed away at various machines.

Rose tried calling her father on his mobile, but it went straight to voicemail, so she turned to Stephen and said, "Get Pete Tyler, Head of Torchwood! I don't care what he's in the middle of, tell him we have Daleks incoming."

Stephen stood frozen to the spot, simply staring at Rose with confusion.

"What are you waiting for!?" Rose shouted at him. "Don't just stand there, RUN!"

Stephen's eyes widened perceptibly as the full commanding force of Rose Tyler washed over him. Then, he did as he was told and broke out into a run to find the head of Torchwood.

The Doctor had successfully rewired one of the devices and its monitor now displayed an image of a single Dalek ship orbiting above the Earth. "There's only one ship, but it's fully loaded. That's more than two thousand Daleks right above planet Earth."

Rose swore, and turned to the nearest lab technician. "Run down to the weapons stores and get them to start distributing the polycarbide guns to anyone and everyone that's been trained to use one. They're built to damage the skin of a Dalek."

The man ran off obediently, while Rose turned to someone else to demand, "Go to my secretary and have her call in all off-duty Torchwood agents in the area. We're going to need everyone that we can get."

Rose looked over at the Doctor to find him staring at her. It wasn't often that he saw the soldier side of his Rose anymore, but every time he did it filled him with both pride for how far she had come and guilt for what he had turned his companions into.

Rose recognized the all-too-familiar look of guilt in her husband's eyes, so to distract him she asked, "How long do we have?"

"Well, they seem to be launching Daleks from the ship as we speak. I'd say we have about 20 minutes, give or take, before they get here."

"Right, okay then," Rose began her pacing again.

Having distributed all of the necessary orders that she could think of and that she had the clearance to issue, Rose whipped out her mobile to ring up her mother. Once the word "Dalek" had been uttered, it took very little explanation to persuade her mother to pull her brother, Tony, out of school early for the day and to secure themselves in the shelter room that had been built into basement of the Tyler mansion when it was rebuilt after the Cybermen attack years back.

"I thought you said there weren't Daleks in this universe," the Doctor said pensively when Rose finished the conversation with her mother.

"There aren't, as far as we're aware," Rose explained. "We had them when the walls around the universes were collapsing, because they were able to come through to this universe from our old one, but other than that they've never been seen here. My theory is that the Daleks and the Time Lords existed together, as a sort of balancing act. So, since you guys only existed in the one universe, the Daleks do, too. But if that's the case, how'd they get here now?"

"Ohh," The Doctor tugged at his ear as he thought, "They probably fell through the Void and managed to slip through a tiny crack to this universe. Similar to the first time we accidentally ended up here, when there were the Cybermen."

"So does that mean somewhere there's a crack between the universes that could potentially rip open to the Void again?" Rose asked, her voice filled with worry.

"Probably not. Tiny cracks tend to happen often, little fissures at the edge of the universe caused by the normal stretching and pulling and ripping that comes with universal expansion. Like when the skin on your hand gets really dry, and simply bending your knuckles causes the skin to crack and break open," The Doctor demonstrated by holding his hand out in front of him and flexing it. "But when it's tiny cracks like that, they heal themselves, just like your the skin on your hand would. Problems, like when the Cybermen leaked through from this universe to our old universe, only happen when people find those cracks and rip them open further. Once they get too big, the cracks can't seal on their own anymore and somebody like a Time Lord with a TARDIS has to step in to save the day."

"If these cracks are so common, and one big enough for an entire Dalek ship to slip through is considered small enough to not be harmful, how come you couldn't get through one of those to get to me when I was trapped here?" Rose looked a bit hurt.

"Oh Rose," The Doctor wrapped her up in his arms for a big embrace. "Believe me, if that would have worked, I promise you that you would have found a big blue box waiting for you as soon as you looked away from that white wall after Canary Wharf. The TARDIS is much bigger, and much more dimensionally complicated than a Dalek ship. Trying to move the TARDIS through a tiny crack like that would require punching through it with so much force that it would rip open and destroy all of the universes at once."

"Okay. I'm sorry, I had to ask though," Rose blinked away the moisture that had formed in her eyes as she moved out of his arms to survey the monitor displaying the Dalek ship on it. "So, you think these Daleks must have come from our universe, yeah?"

"Yup."

"How? Didn't we kill them all off? You know, end of the Time War at the Game Station, all the Daleks sucked into the Void at Canary Wharf, blowing up Davros and the Genesis Ark. There shouldn't be any left after all of that."

"Welll, the thing about the Daleks is that no matter how many times we seem to get rid of them, they just come back. One slips through into the Void and then back again, or the Dalek Emperor escapes the time lock. They're a right pain, and an awful lot like you humans with your will to survive. Even at the very end of the universe, the humans are still making ends meet. Didn't see any Daleks there, though. Maybe I finally got rid of them once and for all," the Doctor stared into space thoughtfully for a moment.

"Your will to survive seems to be even stronger than that of the Daleks."

"I suppose," the Doctor looked back at the machines with a dark look in his eyes. "I should get back to this. I'm going to see if I can get any more information about them. What they want, why they're here, the usual stuff."

"Oh," Rose's eyes lit up as something clicked in her mind. "Hang on, what was that message that they sent last? I didn't really pay attention to it, what with the 'Exterminate' and all."

"'Surrender the Bad Wolf or the planet will be exterminated,'" the Doctor read. "That's not good. That is very, very not good."

"So they want something that doesn't actually exist except as a jumble of words that have been tossed across all of space and time and two different universes?"

"Er, well, yes. Apparently." The Doctor knew differently, that the Bad Wolf was indeed a very real, very powerful, and very dangerous being. But it was gone now. He had died to take the power of the Vortex out of Rose and to return her to being her very human-y self again. There was no way to return the power to Rose without universal destruction, or at the very least killing his favorite pink and yellow human in the process. Especially not without a TARDIS to look into. Bad Wolf no longer existed, so they couldn't very well surrender it to the Daleks, even if they had wanted to.

"Okay, but how do they even know about Bad Wolf? And if it's just words, then how could it be surrendered to them?" Rose's eyes opened wide with realization as she stared at the Doctor, dumbfounded. "Bad Wolf isn't just a phrase that's been following us, is it, Doctor?"

"No, it isn't," he agreed solemnly.

"They want the Bad Wolf surrendered to them, so it must be something that can be surrendered, unless of course they have no idea what it even is," Rose paused in thought for a moment. "I suppose they could have just seen the words everywhere and assumed it was some powerful force that they could use as a weapon. But more than likely, Bad Wolf is actually an object. Or a person."

"Maybe," the Doctor stared evasively at the floor as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Okay, so here's what I know about it. The Bad Wolf words led me back to the Game Station to save you. I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and somehow flew it back to you. There was this beautiful music, and apparently the Daleks all dropped dead, and then you died and regenerated. You told me at the time that you sang a song and they all ran away, but you told me later that I'm really the one that destroyed them all somehow. And I looked into the TARDIS just before then, so I'm guessing I used the power that helped me fly the TARDIS to destroy them. Also, to scatter the words as the message that led me there in the first place. So really, I _am_ the Bad Wolf, aren't I? Me, combined with the power in the heart of the TARDIS, is the Bad Wolf."

The Doctor didn't reply, but the guilt and sadness that filled his eyes as he looked up to meet her eyes was all the confirmation that she needed.

"Wow, okay then," Rose sank down into the nearest chair. "So, if I'm the Bad Wolf, then the Daleks want me?"

"No, they want the Time Vortex. That's the power that you got from the heart of the TARDIS."

"If I did that though, is it still in me? Locked away somewhere, along with the memories of that time?"

"No. It _was_ in you. You were overflowing with all of the power of the Time Vortex. All of time and space at your control. But no one is meant to have that kind of power, Rose. It was burning you up from the inside, so I removed every trace of it from you."

"And if no one is meant to have that power, that's what killed you, didn't it?" Still sitting, Rose placed her head in her hands. Her next statement came out as almost a whisper, "I killed you."

"Oh Rose, it wasn't your fault," the Doctor squeezed her hand reassuringly. "I would willingly die over and over again from now until the end of time just to save you. Besides, it was the only way to return the power to the TARDIS."

Rose looked up at him suddenly, "If the power only went through you, and didn't stay within you, then how come it killed you? I wasn't just a conduit, it was actually in me and I used it, but I survived. How did I survive, Doctor?"

"That I don't know. I've never really stopped to question it, I was just glad that you were alive."

"Should it have killed me?" Rose stared at her Doctor with big, brown eyes that could see right through him.

"I don't know, Rose," the Doctor ran his hands through his hair in frustration as he walked around the room. "Nobody's ever had the power of the Vortex running through them like that. Looking into the heart of the TARDIS shouldn't have transferred the power to you, it should have killed you instantly for even trying it."

"So, that's a yes, then. It should have killed me. What makes me different then?"

"Everything," the Doctor looked at her with love shining in his eyes. "You are fantastic, my Rose Tyler."

"And so are you," Rose gave him a cheeky smile.

The Doctor laughed at the reference to his ninth self before agreeing, "Yes, and so am I."

"Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make," Rose's tone grew serious again. "If Bad Wolf is a person, namely an enhanced me, then how do these Daleks know this? Why do they want the Bad Wolf? Do they know what it looks like? What I look like?"

The Doctor sat there stunned for a minute. She had so many questions that he hadn't even considered yet. "Weellll, I suppose if word got around that an entire Dalek fleet, including the Emperor, were all destroyed at the hands of some entity called Bad Wolf, it would cause them to go about seeking vengeance."

"But how would they know about the Bad Wolf? Only the Daleks that were there at the attack on the Game Station would know about it, right?"

The Doctor smacked himself on the forehead before saying, "Oh, Rose Tyler, you are brilliant! That's exactly it! This is a Dalek ship from that very attack. You had some trouble controlling the power, you know, bringing a bit too much life in places, so what if you didn't quite destroy one of the ships? What if, instead of being atomized, it got sent into the Void, where it fell through a crack and ended up here?"

"Are there any others that got away, then?"

"Oooh, probably not. You were pretty thorough," the Doctor smirked at her.

"I wish I remembered it," Rose said wistfully. She thought she could almost hear golden music echoing in the back of her mind.

The Doctor's face turned deadly serious as he replied firmly, "You can't. If you remember it, the memories will burn your mind and you will die. A human mind isn't built to withstand that kind of power, Rose, even if it's just seeing a copy of the memories."

"Right, then," Rose took her cue to drop the subject. "So, there's a Dalek ship above the Earth. The Daleks want me, or rather a me that no longer exists, and they must know what I look like if they were there to witness the events at the Game Station. They know there's someone here that can interpret their signal, because we sent it back to them from this location. I'm guessing with their superior Dalek technology, they probably figured out where the signal came from and were able to get access to at least some of the information surrounding the equipment, possibly even Torchwood's records considering that we've only got Earth firewalls protecting it."

"Yeah, so how does this help us?" the Doctor prodded her on, wanting to see what all she could deduct on her own.

"The signal could be traced back to this lab, which is in my department. The department that I, Rose Tyler, all looking like Bad Wolf as a sitting duck, am head of."

The Doctor nodded solemnly in response.

"Guess we know where the Daleks will be headed then," Rose added bitterly.

"Yup. Straight to Torchwood at Canary Wharf."

Rose groaned, "Been there, done that, and I'd rather not relive this one again, thank you very much. I've had enough of Daleks and big white Torchwood walls for a lifetime."

"Agreed."

"At least we can concentrate the attack here, then, and hopefully limit the amount of civilian casualties."

"Hopefully," the Doctor replied as he stared morosely at the monitors displaying the single Dalek ship in orbit and the hoard of Daleks continuously flying out of it towards planet Earth.

What had started out as such a brilliantly normal day was quickly turning into a nightmare.


	3. The Best Laid Plans

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. Obviously.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's been reading and reviewing this story! It's very encouraging, and it means so much to me! Now, without further ado, here is the next chapter.

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**Chapter 3 - The Best Laid Plans**

Pete Tyler, Rose's step-father and Head of Torchwood, burst in through the door to the monitoring lab. A troop of Torchwood employees followed in his wake, giving the appearance that he had a gigantic, billowing cape of people flowing out behind him. At once, he swooped in to give his only daughter a reassuring hug, before stepping back and saying formally, "What's the status, Agent Tyler?"

Rose straightened up, stepping into the soldier role that she had built for herself, answering, "Project Bad Wolf has been monitoring a signal coming from Earth's orbit for three and a half months now. There has been no change until today, when we discovered that the signal indicated that an entity was actually in orbit, broadcasting a single phrase: 'Bad Wolf'. In an attempt to discover the origin of the signal, we mirrored it back to them. We received a response demanding us to surrender the Bad Wolf, or the planet would be 'exterminated'. We took the use of the word 'exterminate' as a sign of a Dalek threat, and I issued the orders to notify you and to begin the preparations for a Dalek attack as according to procedure. Since then, we have been able to secure video of the Dalek ship in question, and it appears as though a Dalek army, consisting of at least two thousand Daleks, is leaving it and heading to Earth as we speak. We have reason to believe that they will head here, to Torchwood One, in search of something within these walls."

Pete Tyler remained silent for a moment as he processed all of the information. Then he asked calmly, "Do we know what it is that they're searching for? This 'Bad Wolf'?"

"Not exactly," Rose evasively prodded the floor with the tip of her shoe, unwilling to answer that particular question just yet.

"Do we have any way to attack the ship that's in orbit?"

Rose chewed on the bottom of her lip, trying to think of the various ways that a ship in orbit could be destroyed. She had seen something similar once before, when the Torchwood in her original universe blew up the Sycorax ship on Christmas Day. But Rose had personally shut that project down in this universe when she began working at Torchwood. All of the equipment had been dismantled and the pieces put into storage. There wouldn't be enough time to build it anew.

"No," Rose admitted. "Well, maybe if we had a vortex manipulator or some other form of teleport in storage somewhere, we might be able to send someone to the ship and have them blow it up from there."

"No," The Doctor cut off her thought before she got any ideas of blowing herself up with the ship. "We don't have a teleport in the Alien Artifacts Department, I'm sure of it. Besides, to build an explosive device strong enough to knock out the defenses of a Dalek ship, even from the inside, would take more time than we have at the moment. The only way that plan would work would be to enable the self-destruct mechanism on the ship, but it could only be done by someone who understands the Dalek technology well enough to do so, and only if said person was able to successfully navigate to the ship's control console without being killed first."

Rose spun around to give the Doctor a questioning look. The only person here that might have that much knowledge of the workings of a Dalek ship would be the Doctor, so she found herself wondering if he would be able to do it.

The Doctor silently nodded at her, confirming her suspicions. He knew how to destroy the ship from the inside then.

Knowing this, Rose asked hesitantly, "Even if we did have someone that could figure out how to self-destruct the ship, would they be able to get off of the ship before it was destroyed?"

"Probably not," the Doctor gravely answered her.

"Well then," Rose turned back to her father, "We have no way of destroying the Dalek ship. We'll have to settle for destroying the Daleks, one by one. We have weapons that can hurt them, although it's questionable how many of the guns are still operational. They'll concentrate their attack on this building first, so if we can secure it as well as possible, we may stand a chance at destroying them before they discover that what they want isn't here and begin attacking the rest of the world."

Pete turned to the people that had followed in his wake and started issuing orders. He sent some to find and distribute weapons, others to organize the Torchwood employees and agents of various departments, and more to alert the governments of the world of what approached and how to best keep the civilian population safe. Once his entourage had cleared out and it was just Pete, Rose, and the Doctor, he asked, "What if they get tired of attacking us, since we can attack back, and decide to wreak havoc on the civilian population?"

"Welll, we'll need to distract them for as long as possible," The Doctor input. "I'm their sworn enemy. If they know I'm here, they'll want to come after me. We can use that to lure them wherever we want. It'll work for a time, at least."

"And what about this 'Bad Wolf' that they're after?"

"Technically, it's Rose," the Doctor replied with a frown.

Pete glanced at his daughter, concern radiating from his eyes. "How can that be? Why would they want you?"

"Not me, per se," Rose answered. "Apparently, a long time ago—well, more like a long time ago in a future far from here—I seem to have gotten hold of some powerful power of some sort and destroyed a bunch of Daleks. I don't remember it at all, and I don't have that power any more, but I called myself the Bad Wolf, and now they're here for revenge or something, looking for something that looks just like me."

Pete sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking of all of the possible outcomes of this situation. They weren't looking particularly good.

"I talked to Mum," Rose said, looking for something to reassure her father. "She picked up Tony from school and they're hiding out in the shelter at home."

"Good. That's good, they should be safe enough there. Any chance I could persuade you to take shelter with them?"

"Nope, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Rose grinned at him.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," her father replied, full of both concern and pride. "You're too much like me for your own good, sometimes."

Rose laughed and patted her father on arm, "There's nothing wrong with that."

Pete gave her a broad smile, then started pacing about the room. It wasn't long before he stopped and said, "Okay, here's what we'll do then. They want you two, but we need to draw out their attack here for as long as possible in order to keep the rest of the world safe. If we assume that they'll attack from the bottom of the tower and move up, then we can put you two at the top of the tower so that they reach you last. In the meantime, we'll have agents taking them out on all of the levels below, so that by the time they reach you two, we'll have destroyed as many of them as we can beforehand."

"No!" The Doctor and Rose protested at the same time. They had no interest in putting so many other lives at stake.

"Doctor," Pete answered their protests, "you yourself said that we could use you to lure them places. It's a good plan, even if you don't like it. By the time they reach you and discover that Rose doesn't have this power that they want, there won't be as many of them, if any, to attack the rest of the city. Besides, it'll buy you some time to come up with a better plan to get rid of them all."

"But I didn't mean to hide me away and let others die in my place!" The Doctor replied, the fury of the storm flickering in his eyes. "I meant, place a trap for them, use me to lure them into it, and then kill them all!"

"And that'll be exactly what we're doing," Pete answered quietly. "The trap is Torchwood itself, and you two are the bait."

"And what if they don't take the bait?" The Doctor asked darkly.

"They will," Rose replied grimly. "We'll need to show ourselves to them first, then make a beeline to the top of the tower. How could they resist the temptation of killing both the Bad Wolf and the Oncoming Storm?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to angrily reply, but Rose cut him off. "I don't like this plan anymore than you do, Doctor. Do you really think I want to let anyone die for me? I don't. And you should know that. But I think it's the only chance we have to concentrate the attack here, and limit the number of civilian casualties. Each of these Torchwood agents signed up knowing full well the dangers associated with working here. Isn't that better than letting innocents suffer at the hands of the Daleks?"

The Doctor refused to answer her question, instead attempting to break holes in the plan, "What if they attack the top first? They are coming in from the sky, after all."

Pete answered this one, saying, "Lock-down procedures have already begun. The windows all have reinforcements that drop down over them, so the only way in will be from the ground floor where we'll leave the front doors wide open."

"You know if they follow your plan and do make it to the top, they'll kill every last person along the way if they have to," the Doctor said, glaring at Pete.

"I know," the Head of Torchwood returned the Doctor's glare with a hardened look of resignation.

"So what if they make it to us and kill us? What then?" the Doctor walked circles around Rose's father, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he did so. "Who will defend the Earth with both Torchwood and us gone?"

"There's other Torchwood locations to continue the attack," Rose replied reluctantly as she stared at the floor, not quite able to meet the Doctor's eyes. "And we can use the building to our advantage. If we have no more opportunities to defend ourselves against them, this building is wired with a self-destruct mechanism that can be used to demolish it, along with anything inside of it. Hopefully the majority of the Daleks would be inside at the time."

The Doctor paused his movements about the room to stare at Rose as if he had never properly seen her before. He knew that she had changed during the time that they spent apart, but here she was talking about exploding a building in the middle of a city, sacrificing themselves and a bunch of other Torchwood employees in the process, along with anyone else within who-knows-how-large of a radius around the building. The Rose that he knew would never even hurt a fly, but this one was casually discussing plans to blow up the city.

Rose belatedly looked up at the Doctor's eyes to see his giving her an accusatory look at made her heart feel as though it was cracking inside of her chest. "Don't look at me like that, Doctor," she whispered. "I know you disapprove of such things, but someone always has to be the one to wield the gun for you when you can't do so. I had to face a lot of things when you weren't there, and they have changed me. I will not do this without a burdened conscious, but I will gladly be the one to hold the gun for you, Doctor, if it means that you don't have to."

The Doctor was shocked into silence, as he realized that he took happy, innocent people as his companions and turned them into soldiers, into weapons for himself to wield against the universe. And he had now done so to Rose. His beautiful, sweet, compassionate, so very human Rose. He hated himself for it.

The Doctor was startled when Rose placed her hand on the side of his face. He had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed her move closer to him. He met her eyes as she caressed his cheek with her thumb, and the amount of love and emotion that radiated from her big, brown eyes crashed over him all at once, like a tidal wave slamming into a cliffside during the middle of a storm.

"It'll be okay, Doctor," Rose said reassuringly. "It'll give us time to think of a better plan, and then maybe not so many people will have to die. And if we don't think of anything else, at least we'll go out fighting together and take as many Daleks out with us as we can, yeah?"

The Doctor could not agree with her, but at the same time he didn't have a better plan. So he did the only thing that he could think to do, with her body mere inches from his own. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to him, his lips crashing against hers in a desperate plea for respite. Their arms twined around each other, his wrapping around her waist, her fingers threading through the back of his hair. It was the opposite of that first kiss they had on the beach. This time, the Doctor was the one requiring reassurance and an anchor to hold him to this world. Rose was only too happy to oblige him.

Rose's father cleared his throat pointedly, causing the pair to quickly jump apart. They had forgotten that he was still there.

"Right," The Doctor said as he straightened out his suit jacket. "We've got mere minutes to save the world from an army of Daleks. No TARDIS, no sonic screwdriver, and no more regenerations. Think we can do it?"

"Allons-y!" Rose shouted before she gave him her patented tongue-in-teeth grin.

The Doctor reached out to grasp Rose's hand in his own and they excitedly ran out the door of the lab together, with Pete following close behind them.


	4. The Calm Before the Storm

Disclaimer: Insert standard 'I don't own anything' disclaimer here.

A/N: I am absolutely thrilled at the response that this story is getting. I want to thank everyone that is reading, reviewing, following, or favoriting! It means so much to me, and it's really been great motivation to continue working my hardest on this story!

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**Chapter 4 – The Calm Before the Storm**

Immersed in controlled chaos, the ground floor of the Torchwood tower prepared for the oncoming Dalek onslaught. Gigantic guns, designed to pierce the polycarbide skin of a Dalek, were being passed out to Torchwood soldiers. Some soldiers were filing in to the lifts to defend higher floors, while a large number of them took up positions on the ground floor, centered around the doors that the Daleks were expected to enter through. People with higher rankings shouted orders, while those that were not trained to fight bustled into the basements for shelter. Enormous weapons of alien origins were being wheeled in and out of the lifts on moving dollies.

The Doctor and Rose stepped out of one of the lifts, hand-in-hand, to be greeted with this madness. They looked on in horror at the sheer number of people who were willing to sacrifice themselves just to give them more time to find a better plan. It wasn't often the two of them that they were given a chance to see the preparations before a battle. They usually just found themselves thrown right into the middle of it. Seeing the calm that exists just before all hell breaks loose and destruction reigns supreme was almost worse than the battle itself. The preparing and waiting bit was excruciating, knowing that many of the people running about now wouldn't live to see another day.

Pete Tyler walked up behind the pair, having just broken out of a conversation with some of his employees. When he began to speak, both the Doctor and Rose were startled out of their dark thoughts.

"We've got Torchwood Three monitoring the progress of the Daleks," Pete informed them. "The first wave has breached the Earth's atmosphere already. We've only got minutes before they descend on the building."

"If this Torchwood falls, Torchwood Three will take over the battle, right?" Rose asked her father.

"Yes. And they'll let us know if the Daleks stop targeting this building. We'll need a different plan then."

"Okay. Good. Yeah." Rose nervously squeezed the Doctor's hand and he squeezed back reassuringly.

"You two should probably get ready," Pete said. "As soon as the Daleks see you, you'll need to make a run for the top floor. Sorry, but you'll have to take the stairs. We're shutting down the lifts to try to slow their progress upwards."

"And where will you be?" Rose asked quietly.

"I'll be here, on the front lines. Someone has to order this lot about."

"But it's not safe here. You'll die," Rose said desperately, the sound of pain evident in her tone of voice.

"Maybe not," Pete smiled reassuringly at his daughter. "You forget, I'm a much more resilient Pete Tyler than the one from your old universe. Nothing's killed me yet, and plenty of things sure have tried."

Rose simply stared up at her father with big, sad eyes.

"Oh come here," Pete held his arms out to his daughter, and she let go of the Doctor to be buried within her father's arms. "I'll be fine, sweetheart. You just make sure to take care of yourself. You're the one that they want, after all."

As Pete hugged Rose, he looked up at the Doctor behind her and mouthed, "Take care of her."

The Doctor nodded grimly. The look on Pete's face said everything that the Doctor needed to know: he didn't think he was going to make it out of this alive.

"I love you, Daddy," Rose said quietly with her face buried in her father's shoulder.

"I love you, too, sweetie. Now," he pulled out of the embrace, leaving his hands on her shoulders for a moment, "it's time we save the world again."

"Right," Rose nodded as she stepped back from her father, trying to regain the strength of her soldier stance once more. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Oh!" The Doctor shouted suddenly and began to run off.

"Doctor?" Rose shouted after him, confused. "Doctor, wait! Where are you going?"

He skid to a stop and ran back to Rose. "I've got an idea. I need to get some parts from the artifacts vault. It should only take a minute, I'll meet you up at the top."

"Wait, you're going to leave me to be Dalek bait all on my own?"

"Oh," the Doctor hadn't realized that bit. "Er, yeah, I guess I am. Is that okay? I really need these parts."

Rose gave a small laugh that could have been mistaken for a sigh. "Yeah, go on then. I'll see you after the fun begins."

"You better be in one piece when you get there." The Doctor kissed her quickly, then ran off towards the lift.

"Same goes for you, Doctor!" Rose shouted after her husband's quickly retreating backside.

As the commotion in the Torchwood building began to slow to a stop, shouts could be heard coming from outside. Humans screamed in terror and Daleks shouted orders in their emotionless voices. The distinct sound of the Dalek weapons firing reverberated through the uproar. Pete put a hand on Rose's shoulder for reassurance, and the two of them turned towards the doors, mentally preparing themselves for what was about to come through them.

"You know which floors have been equipped with the strongest defenses, right?" Pete asked Rose quietly.

"Yeah," Rose responded as she continued to stare, terrified, at the doors.

Pete nodded silently, removing his hand from her shoulder as he stepped forward to address the soldiers there. "All right, positions everyone! We have incoming Daleks. Fire on my command." He picked up a gun that was handed to him by a nearby worker. Rose looked at it wistfully, wishing she could have one for protection, too. But they were limited in number, and she needed to be unencumbered to run up multiple flights of stairs faster than the Daleks could hover up them behind her.

Cries of "Exterminate" could be heard from just outside the doors now. Rose reluctantly stepped forward to take her place in the formation of soldiers. In the center of the formation, she was surrounded by soldiers, but with a clear path left towards the nearest staircase and a clear view of the entrance to the building. The formation was designed to showcase her, such that the Daleks could easily see what it was that they were after. She just hoped that their desire to have the Bad Wolf would outweigh their brilliance such that they wouldn't see right through the trap.

As Rose held her breath with anticipation, the first Dalek came into view on the other side of the glass doors. Then another, and another appeared. They paused for a moment in a formation of sorts. Then, at a single command, each of the Daleks on the front line fired their weapons. The glass doors of the building shattered, causing sparkling shards of glass to spray across the Torchwood lobby. As the glass settled to the ground, the Daleks entered the building one by one. The well-trained Torchwood soldiers refrained from firing as they continued to wait, terrified, for their commander's orders.

The first Daleks slowed to a stop in front of the wall of kneeling soldiers that were just in front of Rose. The one in front looked her directly in the eyes with its one eyestalk, sizing her up.

"Target acquired!" the Dalek shouted. Shouts of those same two words could be heard rippling backwards through the long chain of Daleks that waited their turn to storm the building. They all knew that she was here now. They would come after Rose.

"Fire now!" Pete shouted.

The soldiers began firing their weapons relentlessly at the Daleks. The shots that hit their mark caused the encased creatures to be blown to pieces, effectively killing them. Rose bolted towards the stairs, running faster than she had ever run before. Numerous cries of "Exterminate" filled the room as she ran, sending chills down her spine. Rose burst into the stairwell with a crash as she threw the door open and barreled up the stairs two-at-a-time, never allowing herself to look back at the devastation left in her wake.


	5. The Invasion Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, and as great as it would be to do so, I don't know if I'd really want to – that's a lot of pressure to deal with.

A/N: First of all, I want to apologize about the delay in posting this chapter. I'm so sorry, but I was out of town for a while and things got hectic (as usual). Barring any unexpected difficulties, posting will continue to be weekly from here on out. Thank you for your patience and thank you so much for reading this story! Words can't express how much it means to me that all of you are reading this. I also want to thank the reviewer that pointed out the inconsistent chapter numbering in earlier chapters. Sorry about any confusion that may have caused, but it's been fixed now! Okay, enough rambling – on with the story!

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**Chapter 5 – The Invasion Begins**

The battle for Earth had begun. Daleks flooded the skies above London and it appeared as though a funnel of the metal-encased beings converged on Torchwood Tower. Terrified humans ran through the streets, screaming in terror as the Daleks invaded Earth. Strangely, the humans were mostly ignored by the invading force. The Daleks were intent on finding the Bad Wolf, and they knew exactly where she was now.

In one of the stairwells of the Torchwood Tower, Rose Tyler bounded up the steps two at a time. As she ran past floor after floor, the young woman thought only of escaping the sounds of the fierce battle raging below her. Rose was the bait, leading the menacing horde of Daleks to the top of the skyscraper. All of the pain and suffering and destruction that undoubtedly was taking place downstairs and all across Earth at this very moment happened solely because the Daleks wanted this particular human. In actuality, they wanted the Bad Wolf, but unluckily for Rose, she just happened to resemble that otherworldly being. Jeopardy-friendly, she'd been told.

The sound of a metal door crashing open somewhere below startled Rose, causing her to trip and bash her shins on the edge of a stair. Her legs burned painfully where the flesh had been ripped open by the sharp stair edge through her jeans. Trying her best to ignore the injuries, Rose pulled herself to her feet using the stair railing. She took a moment to glance down the gap in the center of the staircase to the ground floor. The Daleks were in the stairwell with her now.

"And then came Torchwood and the War," Rose muttered to herself as she stared at the encased creatures, echoing words she had said once before about the battle at Canary Wharf that took place in the other universe so many years ago.

One of the Daleks swiveled its eyestalk to stare directly up at her.

"I just better not die this time," Rose added grimly as she began running up the stairs once again, the Daleks in hot pursuit.

When Rose reached the eighth floor, she rested against the door in the stairwell for a minute to catch her breath. She knew that this floor had a small Torchwood army stationed on it, just waiting for her to lead the Daleks through their ranks. She needed to keep the Daleks following her if this crazy plan of theirs was going work, though, so she would have to make sure that they saw her exit the stairwell here in order to lead them straight to the soldiers.

Just as Rose began to catch her breath and the pain of her injuries started to become prominent through the adrenaline coursing through her system, the first Dalek rounded the bend in the stairs, coming into Rose's line of sight. Her blood ran cold with fear at being this close to a Dalek, but she knew that she was in control of the situation right now. She hoped to keep it that way for as long as possible.

"You will surrender!" The Dalek shouted at Rose as it began hovering to make its way up the only set of stairs separating them.

"Oh, yeah?" Rose taunted, conveying more confidence than she actually felt. "You're gonna have to try harder than that if you want me."

Rose threw open the door at her back and ran down the hallway at full speed. After turning left, the hallway opened up into a larger area that usually served as a lobby for the floor. Today, a line of soldiers filled the lobby, pointing weapons at the ready towards Rose. As she continued running towards them, they split apart in the middle to allow her passage, then quickly closed the hole in the ranks after she had passed. She didn't stop, instead continuing to run farther down the hallway, heading towards another staircase at the other side of the building. Rose tried her best to not stop and think about what was happening to the soldiers as gunfire and shouts of "Exterminate" rang out throughout the hallway.

Upon reaching the staircase that she was aiming for, Rose had to once again wait outside the door until the Daleks saw her. This cat and mouse game was getting old very quickly.

* * *

When Rose reached the second defended floor, there was no need to wait at the door before running out of the staircase. The speed of her running had drastically slowed as she tired from injuries and physical exertion. The Daleks were quickly gaining on her.

Rose ran across the defended floor once more, heading towards the staircase that she had originally started in. As the line of Torchwood soldiers came into sight, Rose mentally willed her tired legs to move faster. The soldiers dared not fire until she had passed them, lest Rose get hit by a stray bullet, but the Daleks were close enough that the shouts of 'Exterminate!" began. Unbidden tears blurred Rose's vision as she watched the first of many soldiers fall privy to Dalek fire, his lifeless body falling to the ground with an audible _thud_. Upon reaching the line of soldiers, Rose quickly ducked down and rolled behind them so that they could begin firing at the Daleks. Trying to block out the sound of firing guns and screaming people, Rose hurriedly pushed herself back to her feet, despite her aching muscles. It was the least she could do to keep running, to keep drawing the Daleks' attention, when all of these innocent people were being hurt because of her.

_This ruse won't work for much longer before they catch on_, Rose thought to herself in an attempt to distract her wandering mind from the death and destruction at hand. _You know, unless they're just really stupid. That would be convenient._

Sure enough, the Daleks had anticipated the wall of soldiers this time. Looking behind her, Rose could see that some of the Daleks had already managed to get past the soldiers. They had acquired a strategy for dealing with the humans and were now headed straight for her. There'd be no waiting at the stairwell for them this time.

* * *

The next defended floor went much the same as the previous one, with Rose just barely making it past the line of soldiers with no time to stop as she made a beeline towards the other staircase. Flinging open the door, she was forced to skid to a stop at the sight that met her. Torchwood had underestimated the Daleks' intelligence. A group of three Daleks waited on the landing for her.

Rose swore and slammed the door closed again before turning on her heel and running back towards the line of soldiers. They were no longer in their formation, and many of them lay still on the ground. The Daleks that had been following her from that side of the building were now making their way towards Rose, relatively unhindered by the few remaining Torchwood employees. Rose was now trapped on this floor, between two sets of Daleks quickly advancing on her.

Seeing no escape, Rose backed against the wall of the hallway as she considered her options. She wasn't sure what to do next.

"Rose!" A wonderfully familiar voice shouted from just behind her.

Rose's head snapped to the side to look hopefully in the direction of where the voice had come from. The Doctor could just be seen in an open doorway right next to her, holding out his hand in invitation. She instantly grabbed it, and he pulled her inside the room, slamming the door closed behind them.

"That was a close one," Rose said, still holding the Doctor's hand for reassurance as she slumped against the closed door to catch her breath. "What now? We've still got a ways to go before we can get to the top. And what was your bright idea earlier?"

"I'm glad you asked!" The Doctor said happily, as he held up a jumble of mechanical parts in his other hand. "I'm creating a teleport device!"

"I thought you said we didn't have one here," Rose asked, confusion apparent on her exhausted features.

"Well, that's why I'm building it!" The Doctor looked at Rose as though she'd just dribbled down her shirt.

"Yeah, okay," Rose didn't have any remaining energy to protest against his expression. "How much longer do you need?"

The Doctor let go of Rose's hand to rub the back of his neck in a familiar, nervous habit. "Welll, that's the problem. I need more time than it'll take for them to get through that door."

"Right." Rose pushed off from the door that she leaned against, summoning up her remaining energy as she stood up straight and took a survey of the room. "Is there another way out of here?"

"Hmm," The Doctor said distractedly as he fiddled with a part on his makeshift device. "Oh, yes, I think so. Try back there," he pointed towards a dark area of the room as he continued to inspect the device.

Sure enough, there was another door out of the room that led to a different hallway on the backside of the building. Rose moved towards the back door, turning back to look at the Doctor just in time to see the wall near him burst into pieces with a loud explosion. The Daleks had blown open an entrance to the room. It was a testament to their growing impatience that they had stopped bothering to open doors.

"Doctor!" Rose shouted with concern. She couldn't quite see him in the dust that followed the explosion.

"I'm alive!" He shouted through the ruckus, his voice slightly muffled.

Rose breathed a sigh of relief before replying, "Good. Grab your parts and lets get out of here!"

As the dust cleared, Rose could once again make out the Doctor as he grabbed his partially-completed device and shoved some more parts into his suit pockets. He had a small gash across his face from the flying debris and a rip in the knee of his favorite brown suit that he'd surely whine about once he noticed it. With the necessary parts in hand, he ran towards Rose and grasped her hand tightly in his as they ran out of the door and down the empty hallway.

"Just like old times, huh?" Rose smiled widely up at him as they ran. Just being near the Doctor seemed to have partially restored her energy.

"Oh yes!" The Doctor grinned happily back at her as they dashed towards the nearest staircase, hand-in-hand.

Their running slowed when they came to a corner, and the couple stopped to glance around it. It appeared as though the Daleks had become distracted with trying to follow them into the room they had just left, so the path to the staircase was clear once more. Seeing that it was clear, the Doctor tugged on Rose's hand, and they sprinted into the stairwell and up the stairs. They couldn't risk another close call like that, so as they ran up the stairs, Rose called in on her mobile to notify the last defended floor that they would need to resort to plan B to defend the stairwells instead. As the battle raged on below, Earth's two Defenders hurriedly climbed up to the top of Torchwood Tower, the Daleks hot on their heels.


	6. View from the Top

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: Once again, I want to issue a very big thank you to everyone who's reading this story (and a big apology for another delay in posting)! Remember, reviews are a great motivation to keep me in a writing mood when my busy life is trying to pull me away. Also, they're a good way to let me know if the story's moving in the right direction, which is really quite helpful. So please let me know what you think!

* * *

**Chapter 7 – View From the Top**

Hand in hand, the Doctor and Rose Tyler climbed the last remaining stairs of Torchwood Tower and bolted into the big room at the top. The room was empty save for a few desks and dusty computers, having been mostly abandoned after the situation with the Void. The couple slowed to a stop in the center of the room, and Rose leaned over, placing her hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath.

After a few seconds, Rose peeked through the curtain of her blonde fringe to find the Doctor staring solemnly at the big, white wall at the end of the room. Now just a blank wall, it had once served as a link to the Void, and through it, to their original universe. That wall signified so much sadness and heartbreak for the both of them.

"Not exactly my first choice of places to be at right now," the Doctor said grimly, still staring at the wall with a hollow look in his eyes.

"No kidding," Rose agreed with him as she straightened herself up and grabbed his hand reassuringly. She had tried her best to avoid this room ever since the day that she broke down against that wall. She had succeeded quite well until now.

"Right," the Doctor peeled his gaze away suddenly, changing the topic as he raised his eyebrows and grinned at Rose. "We've got a planet to save."

The Doctor practically skipped over to a nearby table, placing his device on it and pulling out random bits and bobs from his pockets to set next to it. He slipped on his spectacles and quickly began examining the parts, setting some aside and hooking up others to the jumble of pieces that he had already assembled. Rose took the opportunity to access a nearby computer, beginning the preparations for the building's self-destruct sequence in case the need for it should arise.

As they hurriedly worked, the sounds of screams and gunfire became increasingly louder, echoing up the nearby stairwell and serving as a reminder of the lack of time available to complete their preparations.

"Please tell me you have a plan this time," Rose asked after a few minutes, her voice laced with desperation as she looked up from the computer screen.

"Of course I have a plan," the Doctor looked at her indignantly. "I always have a plan. What do you take me for, Rose, some kind of not-having-a-plan guy?"

Rose gave him a clearly disbelieving look as she replied, "You never have a plan, Doctor. You always just make it up as you go along."

"Oi! I think I liked it better when you still thought I knew everything," the Doctor grumbled.

"And now we have the Oncoming Pout, ladies and gentlemen!" Rose jested with a grin.

"Oi, Earth Girl!" The Doctor half-shouted, his Donna heritage showing itself not for the first time. "Time Lords do not pout!"

"Ah, well it's a good thing you're only part Time Lord then, 'cause you're definitely pouting." Rose grinned at the Doctor, her tongue slipping out from behind her teeth.

"I am not! And I do have a plan, thank you very much! Once I get this teleport working—which, I should be able to. As you've said before, I am _very_ good with teleports," he gave Rose a cheeky grin before continuing, "It's just a simple transport across space, it's not like messing with time or crossing dimensions, and it really only has to work once, so it doesn't even have to be all that good, although it could be helpful if-"

"And the point is?" Rose cut him off.

"Point, right, yes. We get the teleport working, then I take it up to the ship and _boom_," the Doctor made an explosive motion with his hands, "no more Dalek ship. I may even be able to recall the Daleks to their ship before blasting it to pieces, so we can get them all. Otherwise, we'll still have a bunch of angry pepper pots making a mess of the place."

"No. No way, Doctor." Rose shook her head fervently. "You said earlier that to blow up the ship, you wouldn't be able to get back off of it in time. You are not blowing yourself up and leaving me stuck here all by myself again. There's got to be another way."

The Doctor looked back down at his work, unable to look Rose in the eye. "There isn't another way, Rose. Well, not one that we have time for. If there was time, maybe I could rig up enough power for a two-way transport, but as it is, this'll just be a one-use device. One teleport, then that's it. Device doesn't work anymore."

"And you're sure there isn't another way?"

The Doctor hesitated in replying for a moment as he took in the look of desperation on Rose's face. He was reminded strongly of the teenage shop girl that he first told to run in a basement all those years ago and his resolve faltered, if only for a moment. Then, he met Rose's eyes firmly to convey the importance of his words and answered, "I'm positive. It's the only option available to us right now."

"Then let me do it, Doctor," Rose pleaded. "There's so much more that you can do for this world. After all is said and done, I'm still just a stupid ape, blundering about without a clue of how to solve most of the problems that we face here everyday. This world needs defending, and I can't think of anyone better to do it than you."

"Oh, Rose," the Doctor sighed, putting down the wires he was messing with. He walked over to Rose and placed his hand gently on the side of her face and slowly rubbed her cheek with his thumb. Then he continued with a soft voice, "You were never a stupid ape. That was just my daft old self trying to put distance between the universe and me by insulting you and every other species in existence. But you, Rose Tyler, you are brilliant. Have you even seen yourself lately? Head of Alien Encounters at Torchwood, Defender of the Earth, Saver of Universes. You flew the TARDIS and saved both the Earth and me from total destruction. You built a dimension cannon and crossed hundreds of parallel universes in order to save them all. And today, you were rushing about giving orders like you owned the place, and you probably saved many lives with your quick action. This world doesn't need me, it got along just fine without me for this long. But you, Rose Tyler, you are special. You are needed, not just in this universe, but in all of them."

"Uh huh, sure," Rose smiled at the Doctor like he'd gone crazy, but at the same time she grabbed his hand from her cheek and kissed his palm. "You're not distracting me that easily, Doctor. The universe needs you, too. It's not just savin' the world and playin' with bits of alien stuff, you teach people to do what's right, to stand up for what they believe in. And I believe in you. I can't let you go sacrificing yourself if there's another way. And I'm the other way."

"Rose," The Doctor half-whined, running his hand through his hair and causing it to stick up in all directions. He was making no progress here. That's why he always used to act before consulting his companions – they never agreed with him, especially not his Rose. He began to pace in front of her as he replied, "I'm the only one that knows the Dalek technology well enough to blow the thing up. One wrong switch, one wrong dial, and you're, I don't know, blowing up the Earth instead! We'll try to come up with another way, but if not, you have to let me do this."

Rose simply nodded and went back to the computer that she'd been working at. She would never be the one to ask him to stop saving people. But she would find another way to save this world. There was always another way.

The sound of Daleks shouting on the other side of the door to the stairwell made both Rose and the Doctor look up from their respective projects with fear and a familiar tinge of excitement. They looked at each other for a moment, as identical manic grins appeared on their faces. Face the trouble head on, that was their policy. Then, their gazes shifted to the door as it exploded and a mass of Daleks entered the room.

_Here goes nothing_, Rose thought as she stood up from the computer with trepidation to meet the creatures that were rapidly flooding into the room.

"Surrender! Surrender!" The Daleks began shouting as they single-mindedly advanced on Rose, backing her against the nearest wall. They all but ignored the Doctor, much to his chagrin.

"Leave her alone!" The Doctor demanded as he tried to make his way to Rose, the half-finished teleportation device still in his hands. "What is she to you? What do you want with her?"

One Dalek moved closer to Rose than the others in order to assert his position as the leader. Then, he said to her, eyestalk peering her in the face, "The Bad Wolf will surrender."

"I will do no such thing!" Rose responded, offended that the Daleks thought she'd go so quietly.

"The Bad Wolf will surrender, or the Earth will be destroyed."

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard that one already. But see, I'm not the Bad Wolf. The Bad Wolf doesn't exist anymore. I took in power I wasn't supposed to have, but I had to give that power back. It's gone. I'm just a human, you don't want me."

"You are not the Bad Wolf. But, the Bad Wolf will manifest," The Dalek said confidently, its eyestalk looking her up and down.

"And what does that mean?" The Doctor asked, his face screwed up in confusion as he remained stuck behind the row of Daleks surrounding Rose. "What do you mean, it 'will manifest'? It can't manifest, it was pure TARDIS energy, and there's no TARDIS here to pull energy from!"

Some of the Daleks lazily turned to look at him, and if they'd had visible faces, the Doctor would have sworn that they looked bored. Soon after, they spun around again to continue staring at Rose. Rose looked at the Doctor with fear and confusion in her eyes at their strange obsession with her.

"You are not human," The Dalek in the front said as it continued staring at Rose, "and the Bad Wolf will manifest."

"Manifest! Manifest" The Daleks all repeated, filling the room with a din of mechanical shouts.

"What do you mean, she's not human?" The Doctor shouted over their noise as he looked at the Daleks with disgust. "Of course she's human, she's as human as they come. Besides, why do you want her, after all, when you could have me?"

"Why would we want you?" One of the Daleks turned around to face the Doctor.

A half grin formed on the Doctor's face as he stood up straighter, pulling at the lapels of his suit jacket, and replied, "'Cause I'm the Doctor."

At once, all of the Daleks spun around to face him, with repeated cries of "Doctor?". While they were distracted, Rose tried to edge along the wall to get out from where they had trapped her.

"Yeah, that's right. The Doctor. The one and only. Welll, not really the _only_, but close enough. The Doctor, The Oncoming Storm, The Destroyer of Worlds. Take your pick, I guarantee you won't like any of them." The Doctor glared at them all in turn with his best Oncoming Storm expression that could send entire armies running.

A few of the Daleks closest to him shifted backwards in what could only be described as fear.

Then, the Dalek that had asserted itself as leader looked him up and down, and replied simply, "You are not the Doctor."

"Of course I am!" The Doctor protested, slightly insulted. "I may be a bit more human than usual, but I am definitely the Doctor."

"You do not look like the Doctor."

"Oh, that's right!" The Doctor slapped himself in the forehead. "When did you last see me? Other universe, Game Station, death of Dalek emperor, right?"

"Blaspheme! Blaspheme!" The Daleks all began shouting.

"Ooh, yeah, hit a nerve there, huh?" The Doctor smiled wickedly at them. He could tell out of the corner of his eye that Rose had maneuvered herself so that she was almost free from the Daleks that had surrounded her. "Well, new face! That's why you don't recognize me. Time Lord, remember?"

"You register as human," The Dalek replied, his tone growing bored. "We have no need for you."

The Daleks all turned around to look at Rose again, and quickly surrounded her once more, this time backing her into a corner of the room.

"I am not human!" The Doctor shouted desperately as he tried to get their attention once more. "One heart, yes, but I've got a Time Lord brain! Part human, part Time Lord. I'm a human-Time Lord metacrisis. One of a kind. And how come you're saying I'm human but Rose isn't? Clearly you lot have gone mad. Madder than mad. Completely, flipping insane."

"Silence!" The Daleks shouted at him. "We will not hesitate to kill you."

"Oh, but you already have!" The Doctor replied with a manic grin. "If you don't need me, why haven't you killed me already? Huh?"

Three of the Daleks closest to the Doctor suddenly turned around and advanced on him. He probably shouldn't have said that last remark. Stupid giant gob.

"Ext-" The Daleks began to shout

"Wait!" Rose shouted, and the Daleks stopped their advance on the Doctor. "I'm the one that you want, right? Well, I won't cooperate if you hurt him. So, he's off limits. Got it?"

The Daleks turned back to face Rose as the leader asked her, "Do you surrender?"

"No!" The Doctor shouted as he fought to get closer to her, but the Daleks stopped his advance. "Rose, don't do it! You don't know what they want from you!"

"Doctor, if I can stop the suffering that they're causing, then I will. Just like you would, if given the chance," Rose replied, looking at the Doctor sadly as his frustration and desperation showed clearly on his face. Then, she turned to look at the leader Dalek and pleaded, "I'll surrender, just don't hurt him or anyone else on this planet."

Both Rose and the Doctor felt a faint fizz in the air, and she looked at him with confusion for a moment before she felt a rushing feeling and everything went black.

* * *

In the top room of the Torchwood Tower, the Doctor stood completely alone, staring disbelievingly at a hauntingly familiar white wall where Rose Tyler and a hoard of Daleks had been just moments before. The Daleks had transported her to their ship, along with each and every one of them.

Well, this certainly wasn't turning out as he had planned.


	7. Trapped

Disclaimer: Standard 'I don't own anything' message.

A/N: Things are getting exciting now. I do need to issue a little forewarning for this chapter though, as it gets a bit dark. I really tried to avoid the darkness, but, well, these are some awfully stubborn characters that we're dealing with here, and they rather like to have their own say in these things. So, if dark isn't your particular cup of tea, you've been warned.

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Trapped**

Rose's head throbbed painfully as she slowly clawed her way up out of the darkness of her hazy mind. Based on her heightened level of confusion and recent lack of consciousness, Rose was pretty sure that she had fainted. She was also pretty sure that she had fainted due to the Daleks transporting her across space using methods that weren't exactly designed for human travel. She assumed that if she opened her eyes right now, she would more than likely find herself on the invading ship in orbit above the Earth, surrounded by ridiculous amounts of Daleks.

Well, that certainly didn't bode well.

Rose quickly became aware that, although she had indeed passed out, she was not lying on the floor as one would typically expect. She felt as though her body was upright with her head dangling limply, her chin just about touching her collarbone. Cold, hard metal bit unpleasantly into the tender flesh of her wrists and she was quickly losing feeling in both of her arms. Rose's eyes snapped open at the realization that she was restrained and dangling from her arms. She quickly found her footing, standing up on her feet to alleviate some of the pressure that the handcuffs were exerting on her wrists. Looking up, Rose verified that her arms were indeed restrained above her head. Blood trickled slowly down her wrists, indicating that the Daleks had been less than careful when chaining her up. She vaguely wondered how the Daleks were even able to chain her to a wall, considering their lack of opposable thumbs, but quickly decided that now was not exactly the best time to be contemplating such things.

Groaning audibly, Rose shifted her weight as she tried to regain the feeling in her arms.

"She is awake!" A Dalek shouted from nearby, causing Rose grimace and mentally kick herself for making a noise. There went the element of surprise.

A horde of Daleks quickly rushed towards her, but Rose took a moment to survey her surroundings before focusing on the Daleks themselves. She was definitely on the Dalek ship. It looked exactly like the one that had haunted her nightmares since the time that she was kidnapped during the events at the Game Station. However, she appeared to be in some sort of a control room this time. Panels of buttons and dials lined the walls, interspersed with screens that displayed information in some language that Rose had never seen before. It was times like this that she really missed having the TARDIS around to translate. A dozen Daleks remained in the room with her, standing around the controls or advancing towards her. Rose knew from past experience that hundreds more Daleks would be housed within this ship.

A single Dalek approached her ahead of the rest and shouted, "The Bad Wolf will manifest!"

Several shouts of "Manifest!" from the other Daleks echoed its words.

Rose quickly tried to think of a solution to the predicament that she had found herself in. She was all alone on a Dalek ship in orbit above the Earth, and the Doctor had no way to get to her until he was able to get his teleport device working. Even if he did get it working, they'd both be trapped here then, since it would only be a one-way teleport. The Daleks had used some sort of transport on her, though, to get her from the Torchwood Tower to this ship, so it was possible that the Doctor and her might be able to use that technology to get back to Earth. The key point of that idea, however, was that she needed the Doctor, since Rose had no idea how this advanced technology worked.

So, chained to a wall, surrounded by Daleks, but in a control room. What would the Doctor do if he were the one in this situation? Well, he'd talk his way out of it. He'd somehow impossibly manage to get out of the restraints, then waltz around the room hitting buttons while his enormous gob ran away from him until the ship blew up and he had simultaneously managed to teleport himself off of the ship and back to Earth, safe and sound in one piece.

Rose took a deep breath and thought to herself, _Okay, Step 1: Talk until I figure out how to get out of these restraints._

"So, you want the Bad Wolf?" Rose asked the Daleks in a strong voice that in no way resembled the nervousness that was quickly taking over her body.

"The Bad Wolf will manifest," the Dalek nearest to Rose answered.

"Yeah, yeah," Rose replied before they could start their chorus of "Manifest!" again. "I've heard that one already. But you lot came from the Game Station, right? So you know just what the Bad Wolf can do. You saw it rip apart an entire Dalek fleet, including the Emperor himself. Why exactly would you want to bring that power back?"

"The Bad Wolf destroyed the Emperor," the Dalek replied as the other Daleks shouted, "Blaspheme!" angrily at her.

"Yeah, so shouldn't you lot be running as far away as you can get from that kind of power?"

"The Bad Wolf also brings life. The Bad Wolf will return the Emperor."

"Oho!" Rose shouted as she tried to nonchalantly pull at the chains of her restraints, "So that's what you want. You want your precious Dalek emperor back. Well, what makes you think the Bad Wolf would bring him back? Why bring him back when she could just destroy all of you instead?"

"The Bad Wolf will manifest, or the Earth will be destroyed," The Dalek replied simply, and Rose noticed a handful of Daleks return to their controls, spinning dials with their suckers and monitoring the screens for changes.

"Right, forgot about that one," Rose mumbled as she continued to tug at her chains. They were too strong for her to break out of on her own, so step 2 (magically get out of the restraints) of the "Do what the Doctor would do" game was at a standstill for now.

Suddenly, a transparent screen appeared, hovering in the air before Rose, and she was startled to see that it was showing video feeds of residential areas of London. Within the video feeds, Daleks began streaming down out of the sky, and explosions erupted as they fired their weapons at the houses. Men, women, and children ran outside screaming, at a loss for what to do. Others ran for shelter, attempting to evade the explosions by hiding out in bunkers and safe rooms that were built when the Cybermen had laid siege to this world.

Tears streamed down Rose's face as she witnessed all of the death and destruction that was occurring on Earth due to her own actions (whether she could remember them or not) from years ago at the Game Station.

"Stop it!" Rose shouted through her tears. "Those are innocent people that you're attacking! This is a level five planet, they can't defend themselves and they've done nothing to harm you."

"Manifest!" The Daleks shouted at her. "Manifest, or your planet will suffer!"

"I've already told you, I can't bring the Bad Wolf back! I don't have that power, it was taken away from me before it killed me. It's the power of the time vortex, and we have no way to access it any more."

"Then more will die."

The explosions continued, and the screen showed various sections of London as it was attacked. Then, the view switched to show a large building that Rose had grown to call home during her time in this universe. It was the Tyler mansion, and she knew that her Mum and brother were currently sealed within it.

"No," Rose whispered, unable to raise her voice any louder as fear for her family clouded her mind.

"We have been watching the Earth," The Dalek said. "We have access to Earth's records. We have access to Torchwood's records, Rose Tyler. It was not difficult to locate your family."

Rose looked on with horror as a line of Daleks surrounded her family's home. "You can't do this," she whimpered.

"Obey!" The Daleks shouted at her.

"I can't 'manifest'! I don't have any power. I'm human!" She shouted in desperation.

The Dalek gave an order, and Rose saw on the screen as each of the Daleks surrounding her parents' house fired their weapons at the building. She could hear the roar as an explosion shook the mansion and a cloud of fire and billowing smoke erupted from it.

"No!" Rose screamed so loud that it felt as though her throat was ripping apart. She quickly turned her head away from the screen as tears filled her eyes. Her Mum, the one person that had always been there for her, was inside that explosion. Her brother, far too young to be faced with such a tragedy, whom she had helped raise and entertained with countless stories of her's and the Doctor's adventures since he was a baby, was in that building. Rose could only hope that they were in the safe room that they'd built underneath the house, and that it had been able to withstand the explosion and flames that followed. It was possible that they'd survived, although it wasn't very likely.

"You won't get away with this," Rose said to the Daleks, her voice dangerously low.

"You will obey us," the Dalek responded.

"I will never obey you," Rose spat back at the Dalek, hatred coating her words as her voice trembled with emotion. "I will stop you, though."

"You are restrained," the Dalek taunted back. "How do you plan to stop us?"

"Ooh, I think I might be of some help there," the familiar voice of the Doctor rang out through the room, causing a wave of relief to pass through Rose. She quickly scanned the room to find him leisurely leaning up against one of the control panels along the far wall. At the same time, every Dalek in the room spun around to stare him down with their eyestalks.

"Hello!" The Doctor waved his fingers cheerfully. "I'm the Doctor! Surprised to see me?"

"Explain! Explain!" The Daleks shouted at him as they pointed their weapons at him.

The Doctor began to animatedly walk in circles around the Daleks, occasionally leaning down to peer menacingly at one of them through their eyestalk. "I'm the Doctor, welll, mostly the Doctor. A bit more human than you're used to and a bit more Donna-ish that I used to be, but you know what?" The loudness of his voice dropped conspiratorially, "I've grown rather fond of this human-y me, one heart and domestics and all. So I've come to stop you. Again."

The Doctor pranced around some more, running circles around the Daleks with his active, lithe body, making it difficult to keep track of his whereabouts despite the smallness of the room they were in. It was this particular fact that made it difficult to notice that as he roamed around the room, he was discreetly hitting buttons and twisting dials along the walls. He was doing exactly what Rose had imagined he would—running his gob as distraction while he bounced around, hitting buttons that undoubtedly would destroy the ship once he was done. Rose smiled proudly at him as a sense of relief and safety washed over her. Now that her Doctor was here, strutting about as if he owned the place, she had no doubt in her mind that he would save the day once again. He'd set her free, destroy the Daleks, and get them both safely back home. No problem. The Doctor could do anything. This Doctor began as only a hand, after all.

The Doctor continued his rant as he flitted excitedly about the room, "You'd think that you lot would have learned your lesson by now. You took Rose. You threatened her. You chained her up and threatened her family. And you know what?" He paused for effect, glaring at the nearest Dalek with one of his terrifying Oncoming Storm looks. "Nobody threatens my Rose. That was your first mistake. Your second mistake was leaving me free to build a teleportation device out of random bits and bobs from Earth. 'Cause I'm a genius. But your third mistake? That was underestimating me. I may be part human, but I'm also part Time Lord. I'm still the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds. More so even than my counterpart in the other universe. Cause I was born in battle, out of anger and rage. I was born specifically to fight you Daleks. I destroyed an entire, established Dalek colony simply because they existed. So if you had any sense at all, you'd drop Rose and I off on the Earth - unharmed, mind you - and you'd run. Run for your lives."

The full force of the Oncoming Storm settled over the Daleks as the Doctor looked pointedly at each of them, giving them their one chance at survival and desperately hoping that they'd actually take it this time. He'd prepared the ship for self-destruction with his seemingly random pushing of buttons, but there hadn't been time yet to set up transport back to Earth.

The room was silent for a moment, before the Dalek that had been doing most of the speaking shouted, "Restrain him!"

The Doctor suddenly found himself surrounded by Daleks, cut off from the lever that he needed to pull to complete the destruction of the ship. They were prodding him with their suckers, shoving him towards the center of the room and away from the ship's controls. He could feel his single heart beating rapidly in his chest as he realized that he may have lost his one chance to destroy the ship.

"That was your one warning," he told them with regret. "There won't be any second chances."

"We do not need your mercy," a Dalek replied. "We have captured this Earth's only defenders. The Earth is ours."

"No!" The Doctor hissed back at them, but the Daleks were no longer paying attention to him. They had turned once more to look at Rose. His beautiful, brilliant Rose, chained up against a wall with blood trickling slowly down her arms. It was a sight that quickly brought back his will to fight.

The Doctor looked back at the lever and saw that he had a clear path to it. But there would be no time for him to get himself and Rose off of the ship. He glanced over at Rose questioningly. She met his eyes and nodded solemnly in response. There wouldn't be any hope for them, but at least they could save the planet in their one last act and go down fighting, together. With the Daleks' attention focused on Rose once more, the Doctor took his opportunity to lunge towards the control panel.

Before the Doctor could reach the necessary lever, he heard a Dalek shout, he heard Rose scream his name in terror, and he heard the firing of a Dalek weapon. Then his legs gave out from underneath him.

"Your legs have been paralyzed," a Dalek told the Doctor as he remained on the floor, desperately trying to get his legs working again.

"Why didn't you just kill me, then?" the Doctor growled, the anger of his birth quickly rising to the surface. "Haven't seen you lot paralyzing people for a long time now."

"You are still needed," the Dalek replied before turning back to Rose.

Rose stared helplessly at her Doctor as he attempted use his arms to pull himself through the line of Daleks towards the console with the lever.

One of the Daleks nearest to Rose moved closer to her, peering up at her with its eyestalk. She refused to look at it until it demanded, "The Bad Wolf will manifest, or the Doctor will be exterminated."

"No!" Rose shouted as her focus snapped to the Dalek. "You can't hurt him! That was part of my terms of surrender, remember?"

"We do not negotiate with inferior species."

Rose stared open-mouthed at the Dalek for a moment, before looking over at her Doctor with pleading eyes. She didn't know what to do. He returned her gaze with a look of pity, but he had no answers for her.

"Okay," Rose chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to make her words believable. "I'll become the Bad Wolf. I'll bring back your Emperor. Just let the Doctor go and stop your attack on Earth."

Rose knew that there was no way she could follow through with her promise, but Step 1 in the 'Act like the Doctor' guide was to jabber on as long as possible, after all. Keep your enemies distracted until a path to survival comes along and lie through your teeth if it'll help.

"We will let the Doctor free when the Bad Wolf has manifested."

"And how would you know if it had manifested?" Rose argued, determined to keep them talking. "Maybe I've been the Bad Wolf this whole time, and I've just been bluffing. I've been having you on. I am Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf, Defender of the Earth, and you will do as I say." She tried to put as much power behind her words as she could muster.

She briefly looked over at the Doctor to see him smiling proudly at her. His brilliant Rose.

The Dalek peered at her carefully for a moment, before replying, "There is only a hint of time about you. You are not yet the Bad Wolf."

Rose sighed with annoyance. This was getting old fast.

The Dalek continued, "We will fix that."

"What?" Rose and the Doctor exclaimed simultaneously.

Before Rose could fully comprehend what was happening, the mass of Daleks descended on her Doctor where he remained on the floor. Time itself seemed to slow as they advanced on him, and Rose and the Doctor locked eyes. Fear and sorrow emanated from his eyes, and that scared Rose. It was a devastating look that she hadn't before seen on this face.

The Doctor was too far away from Rose to have a proper conversation, but she suddenly felt a comforting presence battering its way into her mind.

_Doctor? _She thought tentatively towards the mind invasion.

_It's me_, he replied.

They only rarely joined minds. While the Time Lords were a telepathic species, and some humans can show a propensity for telepathic tendencies, Rose always had difficulty maintaining a connection for longer than a minute or so.

_We don't have much time, love,_ he said as he tried to send comforting thoughts her way despite the fear and regret that laced his mental voice. _I don't think I'm going to make it out of this one. But you _will._ You are Rose Tyler, the doer of all things impossible._ _You need to know how to destroy the ship._

Rose's mind was suddenly filled with a series of images, flickering past like pages of a children's flip book. The images showed her what buttons to press to activate the teleport for herself, then showed her which lever to pull in order to cause self-destruction to occur.

Tears started to slip down Rose's face as she realized that the Doctor had given up on getting himself out of this situation. She could see an image of him in her mind's eye as they talked, but at the same time, she saw the Daleks pointing weapons at his paralyzed form on the ground, shouting words that no longer registered through the deafening roar that filled her ears. She wildly fought at her restraints, ripping the skin on her wrists apart as she desperately tried to get free and save her Doctor from his enemies.

_I love you, Rose Tyler,_ the Doctor told her as he sent her a sequence of images from his own memories of their time together. The kiss on the beach, working together at Torchwood, longing glances, stolen kisses and touches, their private wedding, their honeymoon. He shared his emotions of those events with her, as well, and Rose stopped struggling fruitlessly against her bonds as her Doctor's love overwhelmed her.

One more image projected into her mind, that of the Doctor slipping into his pocket some small device that resembled a little circuit board on a keychain and a stray thought that indicated that it was for her.

Rose was in shock. She was properly in shock. She could barely process the events going on around her. Her body had gone numb, there was a roaring sound filling her ears, and she couldn't seem to form the words that she needed to say. So she simply stared, open-mouthed, at the Doctor as tears ran down her face.

The Doctor met Rose's stunned gaze with a look of regret, and said out loud, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

At that exact moment, dozens of cries of "Exterminate!" echoed around the room as the Daleks fired their weapons at the Doctor and he collapsed, lifeless, on the floor.


	8. The Manifest

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: Thank you for reading and/or reviewing this story! It means so much to me to be able to share these ideas with all of you. I apologize for the ending of the last chapter, but a writer has to be a bit evil occasionally. Once again, the warning of darkness from the previous chapter continues for this one. Really. You've been warned.

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**Previously:**

Rose was in shock. She was properly in shock. She could barely process the events going on around her. Her body had gone numb, there was a roaring sound filling her ears, and she couldn't seem to form the words that she needed to say. So she simply stared, open-mouthed, at her Doctor as tears ran down her face.

The Doctor met Rose's stunned gaze with a look of regret, and said out loud, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

At that exact moment, dozens of cries of "Exterminate!" echoed around the room as the Daleks all fired their weapons at the Doctor and he collapsed, lifeless, on the floor.

**Chapter 8 – The Manifest**

Rose stared helplessly at the Doctor's lifeless form, silently willing him to regenerate. He was still part Time Lord, and he had healing capabilities far beyond that of a human. You could practically watch a gash seal itself over with new skin in a matter of minutes on his body. It was always possible that he had underestimated the amount of Time Lord qualities that he had. It would only be a matter of seconds, then he'd be glowing with golden energy and all would be right once more. Rose was sure of it.

Patiently, Rose waited for any sign of movement or golden light from him. Her heart raced within her chest as she stared with vigil at his motionless form.

An indeterminable amount of time passed in silence, before one of the Daleks finally declared, "The Doctor is dead. There is no sign of regeneration."

Honestly, Rose knew that the Dalek was right. She could not allow herself to believe it, though. They were happy, her and this version of the Doctor. The original Doctor abandoned her, left her with his "copy", but she had grown to love the metacrisis for whom he was. They were supposed to grow old together, but dying at the hands of Daleks just when they were getting started? That was a cruel move on the Universe's part. It wasn't fair. This was supposed to be their happy ending.

Through building tears, Rose stared down each of the Daleks in the room, and a white-hot fury began to build in the pit of her stomach. These wretched creatures had been the cause of so many of the worst moments of her life. They almost killed the Doctor back when he was cloaked in leather. Instead, they caused him to change and she lost the first version of him that she had grown to love. The Daleks were part of the battle at Canary Wharf, and it was a Dalek that knocked loose the lever that caused Rose to almost slip into the Void. Instead, she was left stranded in this universe, apart from her Doctor for painful years of her life. Then, it was the Daleks that caused the darkness to take over, destroying stars and planets and entire civilizations. She was reunited with the Doctor, but the events surrounding their destruction led to her being left in this universe once more. And now, the Daleks had just killed her husband, her Doctor, the one that gave her the choice to spend her life with him.

At that moment, Rose's thought process narrowed to a single train of thought. She wanted to rip each of the Daleks apart, piece by piece, atom by atom, until nothing but dust remained. She had never before felt hate and anger such as this. It deadened the pain of loss that had previously consumed her, and she idly wondered if this is what the Doctor felt when he embraced the Oncoming Storm. Anger clouded the edge of Rose's vision with golden hues. Limitless power emanated from her very being, and in that moment, with grief and anger and desperation clouding her thoughts, Rose wanted only to destroy. She wanted to hurt these creatures for all of the things that they had done to the Doctor, to her, and to every other being in every universe that they had ever wronged. And not a soul was around to stop her from doing so.

_Are you sure_? A voice quietly asked in the back of Rose's mind

_Yes,_ she replied without hesitation. These creatures deserved nothing but death and destruction for the horrendous deeds that they had committed.

And just like that, Rose felt her body consumed by fire. Strangely familiar music ripped through her mind as the fire pulsed through her veins, burning every inch of her body. Never-before used synapses fired in her mind, and Rose could see nothing but a beautiful, golden light. In an instant, she could feel the turning of the planets and the unrelenting expansion of the universe. She could see timelines stretching out before her in her mind's eye. All that is, all that was, and all that ever could be. It was so beautiful, but it was tainted with such rage and hatred and pain. Why must the universe suffer so? The memories from the Game Station with her leathery Doctor suddenly unlocked, and she was flooded with rage and the urge to protect her Doctor, while at the same time, Rose realized with horror that she was the reason he had regenerated and the reason why Jack was forced to die over and over again.

The Daleks startled Rose out of her scrutiny of previously-locked memories as they shouted, almost with glee, "The Bad Wolf has returned!"

The Bad Wolf glared at each of them in turn, and they backed away in fear from the unmasked fury that radiated from her golden eyes. Growing tired of having her hands chained above her head, she disintegrated herself, reappearing in the center of the room, no longer restrained.

The Daleks hesitated for a moment, before shouting, "You will return our Emperor!"

Rose let out a little "Ha!", twirling around to observe the Daleks as they surrounded her. Golden tendrils of time itself surrounded her entire body, swirling within the brown depths of her eyes, and her voice took on an otherworldly quality as she said, "Did you really expect a being such as myself to abide by your will?"

"We will destroy your Earth if you don't," they replied.

"No matter. You killed my Doctor. Now, I will destroy you."

The Bad Wolf raised her hands before her and each of the Daleks on the ship, as well as those down on the Earth, were split apart into atoms. And just like that, nothing remained of the Daleks but dust. However, Rose felt no relief from the act.

Dropping to her knees, Rose found herself on the ground next to her lifeless Doctor. She gathered his body into her arms, pulling him onto her lap, and slowly rocked back and forth as tears relentlessly streamed down her face. Golden tendrils of light swirled around them, and Rose tried to summon the power to bring her Doctor back to life. She could now remember doing it once before to bring back Jack. It had been so effortless then, surely she could do it again to bring back her own husband.

But the power would not obey her.

"Bring him back!" Rose's desperate plea rang throughout the empty room as she continued to clutch at the Doctor's lifeless body. She could feel the power in her body and mind, hovering just at her fingertips but unwilling to do as she demanded.

"I've done it before, and I will do it again!" Rose shouted stubbornly.

"_You can't_," a forceful voice replied, causing Rose to gasp. The words were all at once heard, felt, and seen as they plastered themselves in swirling, golden letters within her mind. The voice itself was laced with power – the power of the universes and time itself – and Rose could just make out the sound of a lone wolf mournfully howling behind it. "_This was always meant to be, my child_."

Rose recognized that this voice must be the source of her power, and that it was coming from within her own mind. But she was no longer thinking logically, and so she argued with it. "No! You can't take him away from me!" Rose sobbed. "It's too soon! We were supposed to grow old together."

"_And you might still_,"the voice replied cryptically. "_But this body's time has passed. Ever since his becoming was set in motion, it has been his destiny to die for you in battle and to bring about the fury of the wolf."_

"Oh I'll show you fury, all right," Rose muttered. She drew on the new power that was burning violently through her veins and threw all of it into trying to bring the Doctor back to life. The light fixtures around the room shattered, sending glass spraying all around Rose. When the sharp shards neared her body, they disintegrated into sand, the soft particles falling straight to the ground and forming a perfect circle around Rose and her Doctor. Exhaustion pulled at Rose's weary bones, her head spun, and her vision flared black at the edges. Still, she tried to bend the power to her will. The remaining objects in the room began disintegrating around Rose's glowing, golden form. When she couldn't hold on to the power any longer, the golden goddess collapsed in a fit of tears against the Doctor's body.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered to him over and over again.

Hours passed as she clutched the quickly cooling body to her, waiting for some miracle to bring him back to life. She waited five and a half hours for him to return to her, just as she had been told to years ago. When it was clear that there were no changes to his lifeless state, Rose kissed her husband on the forehead and whispered, "I love you, my Doctor. I always will."

She laid his head gently on the ground. Remembering the strange circuit-board device that he had sent her an mental image of earlier, she carefully dug around in one of his pockets until she found the small, green circuit-board dangling on a keyring. Rose unclasped the chain that hung around her neck with the TARDIS key that she refused to stop wearing, and slipped the circuit board onto the chain with the key. She hesitated for a moment, then carefully removed the simple wedding band that the Doctor was wearing, adding it to the chain, too, before she clasped it back around her neck.

Then, eyes blazing with golden fury, Rose stood up, refusing to look back down at the body on the floor. She made her way over to the lever that the Doctor had instructed her would destroy the ship. Her hand hovered over the lever for a moment as she hesitated, thinking of how simple it would be to just destroy the ship and herself with it. She could easily ignore the instructions that her Doctor had provided her with on how to work the ship's transport device and simply allow herself to be destroyed along with the ship and his body. It would be so easy. And it would be quick. The pain would only last for a moment before the sweet nothingness of death took over.

Rose's fingers twitched towards the lever, but a burning sensation against her chest snapped Rose out of the haunting thoughts that coursed through her mind. She looked down to see her old TARDIS key glowing orange. Grabbing the key, she could feel it quickly becoming hot to the touch.

_This is _his_ fault_, Rose thought with anger as the TARDIS key reminded her of the other Doctor, carelessly jaunting about somewhere in the other universe. He was the one that left them on that beach with only the clothes on their backs. No sonic screwdriver, no TARDIS, no universe-saving tools that always kept them alive in dire circumstances. That Doctor had abandoned them to this fate.

For a brief moment, Rose could think only of the heartbreaking grief that she was experiencing, and in her anger, she wanted _him_ to suffer, too. She wanted him to know what had happened, to know what path he had set them on and what pain he had caused. She wanted to yell at the original Doctor and stomp her feet like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum.

"_Are you sure_?" the voice asked once more.

"Yes," Rose replied coldly and she swiftly pulled the lever. Fire and flames lapped at her skin as she felt the ship rip to pieces around her, destroying her Doctor's body so that it could never be found and experimented upon. In the next instant, the golden light swirled around her and Rose felt as though she had been doused in ice water. She screamed as her limbs froze and burned all at the same time. Her body felt as though it was being both compressed and pulled apart, all as a hauntingly beautiful song ripped through her mind.

Just when Rose thought that she couldn't take the pain any longer, it abruptly stopped.

Rose could vaguely decipher that she was standing upright on a solid, glass floor that was definitely not self-destructing. There were bright orange and green colors all around her and she could hear the song of time and a universe long ago abandoned. She couldn't make out much more, however. Her ears roared, her head pounded, and her vision quickly began to fade. She had exhausted herself, and the golden haze that surrounded her body made it impossible to see clearly.

"What!?" An unfamiliar, masculine voice vaguely called through the rushing sound that filled Rose's ears.

Rose tiredly looked up at the source of the voice, but did not recognize the man that stood before her. She frantically scanned her surroundings, trying to see through the gold. She could just make out a familiar greenish glow in the center of the room before she noticed startlingly that she could feel two different presences within her mind. They were both powerful and undeniably alien, one terrifyingly confused and the other absolutely delighted. The delighted presence mentally wrapped Rose up in a comforting embrace, and she felt as though she had returned home. And then Rose recognized it as the TARDIS. Which meant that the gangly man in a bow tie must be the Doctor with a new body. The Bad Wolf had transported herself from the burning Dalek ship, across the Void, and directly into the Doctor's TARDIS as it traveled through the time vortex.

It only took Rose a handful of seconds to make all of these connections, and then she met the Doctor's eyes with her own as gold pooled mysteriously within her brown orbs.

"My Doctor..." Rose cried frantically as the golden light furiously whipped around her. As if she was surrounded by wind, her blonde hair was tugged every which way around her face. Weakness quickly spread throughout her limbs and she suddenly felt as though she was no longer in control of her own body.

"It's okay, Rose," the Doctor replied soothingly, as he tried to reach a hand through the golden light towards her. "It's me, I'm the Doctor. New face, but still me."

Rose's eyes narrowed at him as she finished her sentence coldly, snapping, "My Doctor is dead."

The Doctor froze in his tracks as Rose's eyes locked with his own and he saw unfamiliar hatred and rage swirling within their depths. Then, Rose's arms spread out wide and her head snapped back almost of its own accord. The Doctor backed away not a moment too soon, as the golden haze that surrounded her briefly expanded, then suddenly collapsed in on her in a fiery blaze. Just as the last remnants of gold sank beneath her skin, Rose collapsed, motionless, on the floor of the TARDIS.

The Doctor could only stare on in shock and horror as he remained frozen to the spot.


	9. The Wolf

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: I'm absolutely amazed by the fantastic response that I've been getting on this story! Thank you so much, it's really very inspiring! And I'm so very, _very_, sorry about how long it took me to post this chapter. I got caught up in school - between final projects and graduation, there was no time to work on this story. But I'm done with grad school now, so I'll be able to properly focus on this story for a while! Now, here's the long-awaited next chapter!

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**Chapter 9 – The Wolf**

"Where am I?" Rose asked groggily as she opened her eyes. Disoriented, her mind felt fuzzy and unresponsive. Recent memories were a confusing blur of pain and fierce, golden light.

Rose curiously looked around herself to discover that she was surrounded by darkness, existing in an empty space full of nothingness. A shock of fear sent adrenaline coursing though her system, then suddenly, the darkness disappeared. She found herself sitting on a grassy hillside, overlooking a large body of water with sunshine reflecting off of its waves. A giant, futuristic city sprawled before her with shining towers jutting up into the bright blue sky. The sweet smell of apples wafted across the gentle breeze that began to tug at locks of Rose's golden hair. The young woman leaned back with a contented smile to rest on her arms as a sense of peace and calm enveloped her. Her fingers threaded through the grass, and she recognized the smell of apples as that of apple grass. She was on New Earth, the very same hillside that she had once sprawled out on with the Doctor on his brown overcoat. This time, though, there was no hustle and bustle of cars flying through the air. No coat, no Doctor, no TARDIS in the background. The only sounds that could be heard were those of the grass blowing gently in the soft wind.

As Rose soaked up the warm sunlight, the memories of the past day began to come back to her: adventure, adrenaline, Daleks, fear, death, pain, the Void, the TARDIS, and then nothing. A single tear ran down her face, but the calming nature of this place staved off the pain and grief that should have accompanied the memories.

Almost like a nudge in the back of her mind, Rose felt something approaching her from behind. Sensing only comfort and familiarity, she lazily looked behind her to find a wolf with golden fur padding up beside her. She felt no fear or danger from this creature. When it sat on the grass next to her, Rose calmly reached out a hand to pet the soft fur behind its ears.

The wolf leaned its head into Rose's hand, and she heard a musical voice say, "You are within the depths of your own mind."

Startled, Rose quickly removed her hand from the wolf, giving it an accusatory look. She could have sworn that the voice emanated from that creature, although it had made no visible motion to have done so. The wolf made a huffing sound, as if of amusement, then the voice continued, "Of course I'm talking to you. I am the Bad Wolf, and you, Rose Tyler, are my cub."

"And we're in my mind?" Rose asked disbelievingly.

"Yes. You have lost consciousness, and we have retreated here for safety."

"Yeah, okay then," Rose's brow scrunched up with thought as she tried to sort out all of her conflicting thoughts and emotions. She had a strange feeling that she was supposed to be in pain, although whether physically or emotionally, she wasn't quite sure. She felt as though her mind was padded with gauze, insulating her from the pain that she ought to feel.

"You're in shock," the wolf explained Rose's confusion, "and I'm blocking some of the emotions that you should be feeling after recent events. We need to have a proper conversation without all of that human nonsense interfering."

Rose stared at the wolf, at a loss for words. She had so many questions, and this conversation only seemed to be raising more. Rose opened her mouth to ask a question, but closed it before words could come out. Then, a new thought arose and she said, "Wait, I thought I was the Bad Wolf? 'I create myself,' or something like that."

"Yes, and no," the wolf replied as it looked her in the eyes with a hauntingly aware stare. "I have many names, but you know me best as the Bad Wolf. Our Doctor has other names for me, but he does not know that yet. I exist outside of you and outside of the universe itself. I am of Time. I bring life and I bring death."

"Then how come I can be the Bad Wolf, too? Is that you possessing me or something? Is that why I couldn't remember the first time it happened?"

"Yes and no," the wolf answered cryptically as it tilted its head at her.

"Oh not this again," Rose rubbed her face with her hand out of frustration.

"Hush, young one, and I will explain. Like I said, I exist outside of this universe, and all others. I created you as my vessel, to do my bidding. When you looked into the heart of the TARDIS all of those years ago, you were able to contact me through the time vortex, and you accepted my powers willingly. That act allowed me to pass my powers to you and to establish a connection within your mind. But you were only human then, and you could not maintain the connection. So I began to change you. I had to leave when the Doctor removed the time vortex from you, but the connection had already been formed and the changes had already begun. Why else do you think you - a mere human - could survive the vortex when it caused even the Doctor to regenerate? When you called out to me in the alternate universe, I was able to use that connection to inhabit you once more."

A drumming sound rang out in the air, causing Rose to jump in surprise. It could not distract her for long, though, from the curious conversation at hand.

"I'm still confused," Rose asked, biting her lip as she tried to puzzle out the information that she had been given. "So you exist outside of the universe, but you also exist within me? And then, that makes us the Bad Wolf together? Like, I use your powers and you use me to use those powers?"

"Yes, it's a symbiotic relationship. I am a thing of Time and you are Rose Tyler. Separately, you are just a girl, and I cannot easily act within the physical realm. But together, we act as one and are the entity known as the Bad Wolf. We control life and death, and can see all of time itself."

"So I am Rose, and you are Time, and we are both the Bad Wolf?"

"Yes."

"Then what do I call you? You're not actually Bad Wolf, so I can't really call you that, can I? But then why do you look like a wolf?"

"So many questions!" The wolf huffed with amusement again as it shook out its fur. "I appeared as a wolf to you because that is the form that you have chosen to associate with this power. Like I said previously, I have many names. In time, you will discover who I truly am."

"Okay," Rose stood up and began pacing across the apple grass. "I think I'm beginning to understand this. It's madness, of course, but it does make a strange kind of sense." Rose stopped pacing to stare at the wolf as a new thought hit her. "Do I have access to all of your powers?"

"Only when I grant them to you," the Wolf replied lazily as it laid down on the grass.

"So that's why I could bring back Jack but not my Doctor," Rose replied as sadness began to overtake her.

"Yes. You and the Doctor had already met a future version of Jack before you ever brought him back to life. You'll remember him as the Face of Boe. He was always meant to be a fixed point in time, so I allowed you to bring him back forever."

"It wasn't just me not having control over the power, then? We actually meant for it to happen like that?"

"Yes. The Earth needed Captain Jack Harkness, just as New Earth needed him as the Face of Boe many years later."

"But I need my Doctor," Rose whispered.

"The human-Time Lord biological metacrisis was never supposed to exist in the first place. Once created, the metacrisis was always doomed to live out the rest of his life in that universe."

"But we were supposed to grow old together!" Rose half-shouted as grief quickly began to seep through the gauze-like emotional barriers around her mind. "The rest of his life was supposed to be years and years, not ending on a Dalek ship just as we were beginning to live our lives. We were happy!"

"Once the events had been set in motion, the metacrisis had to die in that universe. You cannot become who you are destined to be with him, so I could not let you bring him back. A balance must be maintained between life and death."

"That's hardly fair," Rose whined as she wiped the tears from her face. "And what do you mean 'destined'? Shouldn't I get to choose what I do with my life?"

"Yes and no. There are events soon approaching that you are needed for."

Rose released a single, haunting bark of a laugh. "Who am I destined to be then?"

"That is up to you."

"Is it really? Or have you just been molding me into the person that you need for these 'soon approaching' events that you speak of?" Rose accused with anger. She did not like her life being out of her control like this.

"It is true that you have been set on a certain path. But the choice to continue always remains with you."

"Is this what I'm to become?" Rose raised her arms in a helpless gesture. "Full of pain and rage? Able to destroy an entire species at the blink of an eye, but unable to save the ones that I love? I don't like this person. This is not who I am."

"Then change it. I may grant you my power, but you are ultimately the one that chooses to use it."

Rose paused as she realized the implications of that statement. She couldn't blame the Wolf for the deeds that she had done, it was her decision, after all, to destroy the Daleks. She had wanted them to suffer for what they had done, but she had also wanted to protect the Earth. Rose thought that maybe she beginning to grasp how the Doctor himself felt most of the time.

"I don't know how to get rid of the anger," Rose whispered. "You wouldn't let me bring _him_ back."

Rose looked around confusingly as the drumming got louder. She could feel the air vibrating with the sound now, and it was beginning to give her a pounding headache. If that was even possible, to have a headache while within your own head. Rose was now causing herself to have a meta-headache.

"What is that?" She asked the wolf as the drumming continued.

"It is the Doctor," the wolf replied nonchalantly as it contentedly basked in the sun. "You've been unconscious for two hours now, and he is worried. He thinks he needs to take the time vortex out of your head again, so he has been trying to force his way into your mind."

"What's stopping him him from breaking in?"

The drumming got louder.

"Your mental defenses are weak right now, so I am blocking him out. We cannot let him remove this power. It would cause him to regenerate again if he took the vortex into himself, but it will kill you, as well, this time. Your body began changing after the events at the Game Station, slowly modifying your cellular structure to be more capable of handling our connection and the powers that I grant you. The emotions created during the recent Dalek attack jump-started the next phase of the modifications. When you let me in, your body and mind began changing rapidly in order to complete the process that was started at the Game Station. The changes are not yet complete, and you need to rest for them to finish. If they do not complete, your body will be incapable of containing the power of time, and you will perish because of it. At the same time, I can no longer be removed from you. I am a part of you now, and removing the power would surely kill you."

"So we're stuck together then, huh?" Rose asked as she realized she was resigned to this fate.

"Yes."

"Great," Rose replied sarcastically. She really hoped that this otherworldly being didn't end up wanting to harm her or something. Or, become bored with her miniscule little human life and decide to up and leave her one day without warning, causing her early demise.

"No harm will come to you," the being answered her thoughts with a gentle voice. The Wolf stood up and walked to where Rose stood defensively, nudging her hand with its head in a comforting motion. "We are one now," The wolf continued with a motherly tone. "Although I do still exist outside of you, I created you. You are my cub, my child, and I will not let unnecessary harm come to you. I can control which of my powers you have access to when it is necessary to ensure the proper progression of events, but rest assured, I will not remove myself unless you ask me to. There is no need to fear me, young one."

Rose relaxed slightly as she allowed the comforting action of petting the wolf's head soothe her. Then, the drumming suddenly became so loud that it drowned out everything else. Rose and the Wolf were once more surrounded by darkness as the scenery of New Earth vanished. Rose doubled over in pain, as the mental onslaught became too much to bear.

"Can't you make it stop?" Rose cried as she held her head in her hands.

"No, but you can."

* * *

Rose suddenly opened her eyes to the real world and sat up in one quick, fluid motion, screaming, "Get out of my head!"

At once, the assault on her mind stopped as the Doctor flinched backwards, gaping at her with an open mouth.

"You just _threw_ me out of your mind!" He loudly exclaimed in a shocked voice. "How did you do that?"

"I didn't give you permission to be in there," Rose answered coldly as she looked around her to observe her surroundings. She appeared to be on a bed in the medical bay on the TARDIS, with the Doctor standing at her bedside. He had clearly regenerated into a bow-tie wearing, floppy-haired young man, but there wasn't time for Rose to dwell on this matter just yet.

A hurt look briefly passed across the Doctor's face before it was replaced with a stern one, and he said, "I don't know what you've done, Rose, but you've got the power of the Vortex running through you. Again. You need to let me take it out of you."

Rose opened her mouth to argue and raised her hands to gesture for emphasis, but her attention was quickly diverted by a flash of golden light. She tentatively held each hand out in front of her, staring at them with mild surprise. The skin of her hands appeared to be almost translucent, with visible swirls of gold rippling underneath them like the tumultuous current of an ocean as a storm rolled in. She vaguely wondered what the rest of her body looked like before remembering that she was in the middle of a conversation.

"No," Rose stated calmly as she looked at the Doctor with resigned sadness in her eyes. "You can't remove this power. It's too late, Doctor. I've already made my choice."

"But it'll kill you!" The Doctor shouted at her, waving his hands about like a mad man as he tried to make his point. "You're only human, Rose! You can't contain all of that energy within you without it ripping you apart!"

"Run your medical scans on me," Rose said with a smirk. "I think you'll find that I haven't been quite human in a very long time."

"What?" The Doctor stared at her as if she'd gone crazy. Perhaps she had.

"If you try to remove the power from me now, it _will_ kill me. So stop trying to get in my head, you're giving me a headache." Rose suddenly groaned and clutched her head as a wave of pain shot through it.

"But..." the Doctor opened and closed his mouth several times as he tried to form the correct words to argue with his Rose. Worry etched lines across his too-young face as he replied morosely, "It'll consume your mind, Rose. You'll burn from the inside out! You'll die!"

"No, I won't," Rose confidently stared into the old, familiar eyes within this new, strange face. "You have to trust me on this one, Doctor. Now, leave me alone and let me get some sleep. You woke me up too soon. I'm not done cooking yet."

Just like that, Rose's eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed back onto her pillow, unconscious once more.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," the Doctor muttered grimly as he tucked her back in and set about conducting those medical scans on her.


	10. Born Anew

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: Once again, I would like to extend an enormous thank you to everyone who is reading this! Just as a heads up, we are nearing the end of this particular story. I expect to have only one or two more chapters after this one, although I do intend to have a sequel that will continue to tell Rose's story after the events occurring within this one. Now, on to the current chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 10 – Born Anew**

The first thing that Rose noticed as she slowly clawed her way out of the fog of unconsciousness was the beautiful sound of music. It permeated the air around her, filling her grieving body and mind with a sense of peace and comfort. It wasn't the sound that she had finally come to associate with the Wolf, however. This was still the limitless sound of time, but it was more mechanical than that of the Wolf. It was the sound of a single universe, the ballad of adventure and a dying race. It hummed reassuringly at Rose, and she realized with a start that it was the TARDIS. Rose had never before been able to hear the TARDIS. Remembering that it was a slightly telepathic ship, she realized that she heard the music within her mind and not with her ears. Which must mean that Rose had gained some telepathic abilities with the changes that her body had undergone while she was unconscious.

_Well, that's new_, Rose thought to herself with mild amusement. She curiously wondered what else would come with the new changes to her not-quite-human-anymore body, although the fact that these changes had occurred not entirely due to her own wishes was unsettling and a bit angering.

Before the anger could manifest itself into golden rage, Rose noticed another presence in the back of her mind, the song of a lonely wanderer. Tinged with blue hues in her mind's eye, it was the sound of the universe, with a distinct alien-ish feel. Unlike with the TARDIS, Rose couldn't get any more information from the mental presence, almost as if there was a solid wall blocking her out. After a moment of confusion, Rose realized that it must be the Doctor, the original one, and that he was close by.

Rose groggily opened her eyes, allowing them time to adjust to the low lighting within the room. She noticed that she was no longer in the medical bay, but now within her own bed in her old room on the TARDIS. She rubbed her hand along the pink duvet, taking comfort in the old, yet familiar feel of it. Sitting up in the bed, she gently rested her back against the headboard to better take in her surroundings. It was definitely her old room on the TARDIS, and by the looks of it, not a thing had been changed since she'd last been there. Piles of her clothes still lay haphazardly strewn across the floor, along with opened pop culture magazines and empty tubes of mascara. Pictures of Rose with her family and with the Doctor were taped along the walls in the fashion that only teenagers could manage. A large window along one of the walls showed a simulated view of an alien planet that Rose could no longer remember the name of with purple grass, rose-colored trees, and a deep indigo sky. Gentle sunlight streamed in through the imitation window, all produced by the TARDIS itself, to land on a lonely man sound asleep in a dark pink, fluffy chair in front of the window. He was the only thing out of place in the room that looked as though Rose had only left yesterday.

It took Rose all of a second to notice each of these details. She was surprised at the speed that her mind was now able to process data, and it made her feel as though her brain had been trying to work through jelly for all of her previous years. She supposed that this was another consequence of the changes that she had gone through. Her mind had to be rebuilt to handle the power of the vortex, after all. It shouldn't have been surprising that it felt different and slightly telepathic.

Staring at the Doctor brought feelings of both sadness and relief for Rose as she noticed the changes that he had gone through. He had regenerated again since she last saw him. It had been eight years for her since she traveled with him; five years since she saw him last. But who knows how long it had been for him? They were in the time vortex right now, of that she was instinctively sure, so she could have easily popped in to find a younger Doctor instead of an older Doctor. But this one had clearly known who she was, so to was safe to assume that he was older than the one that she had known. This Doctor was slumped low in the pink chair, his hands awkwardly sprawled across his stomach, his head lolled to the side against his shoulder, and his long legs spread out across the floor. He was wearing a reddish button-up shirt with red suspenders, black pants that were too short for his long, skinny legs, and worn out boots that were laced up. He had a brown, tweed jacket thrown haphazardly across the back of the chair and a TARDIS-blue bow-tie tied around his neck. His big, brown hair flopped across one of his closed eyes, and his face looked so much younger and yet so much older all at the same time. He had permanent frown lines etched across his forehead that seemed to bear the weight of the universe, and Rose knew that if he opened his eyes, she'd be able to see within them the spin of the universe and the pain that comes with too long of a life.

Rose could remember the discussion that she'd had with the Wolf in her mind clearly, and the brief discussion with this new Doctor to get him out of her head. Remembering the golden glow underneath her skin, she immediately stared at her hands in concern. However, they had returned to their usual pale color and Rose breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a flash of pain shot through Rose's body, and she grabbed her stomach with a cry. The sound startled the Doctor out of his sleep. His arms flailed around in confusion and he almost toppled out of the chair before he remembered where he was and why. As he bounded up from the chair to Rose's side, Rose felt a strange sensation rising up within her before she found herself breathing out a wisp of golden smoke. The pain quickly subsided afterward.

Rose and the Doctor both stared in shock at the golden smoke as it slowly dissipated into the air.

Rose looked over at the Doctor, frozen in confusion on his way to her bedside. She asked him with concern, "What was that?"

"Uh," He ran his hand through his long, floppy hair and a confused look remained plastered across his long face. "That was regeneration energy."

"Huh?" Rose's mind felt strangely blank, and it made it difficult to focus.

"The thing is," he shuffled his feet for a moment, "you seem to have regenerated. Sort of."

"WHAT!?" Rose frantically grabbed at the ends of her hair, bending her head at strange angles in an attempt to see if they were still the golden blonde that she remembered. They were.

"Don't worry!" The floppy-haired doctor added quickly. "Not an actual regeneration. Just, sort of. That golden stuff is the same type of energy that changes me during a regeneration. You remember that Christmas when I regenerated? I was breathing that stuff out like crazy."

Rose nodded.

"Yeah, well, it also signifies the end of the regeneration process. You seem to be done cooking now," the Doctor offered up a small smile.

"But, I'm still me, right?" Rose struggled to get out from under the blankets in an attempt to find a mirror, but she found that her limbs were very weak and felt a bit off.

"Oh yeah, sorry! You're still you, still all pink and yellow and Rose-ish. The changes were more internal than external."

"Okay, that's good then, I guess." Rose stopped her struggle to get up, choosing instead to stretch out her sore limbs. They felt strange, as though the nerves themselves were raw and feeling more than they ought to. She could practically count the individual threads making up the blankets that her fingers rested on by touch alone.

As Rose realized the hyperactivity of her nerves, she began to feel a semblance of control come over her, as though her new state of being was just snapping into place. It was then that she felt her mind surge, and hundreds of thoughts and questions began to whir about within it simultaneously in a chaotic manner. She noticed all of the details in the room with a single glance and noticed each of the strange new peculiarities that had come about within her own body in the next microsecond. She noticed the golden presence of the Wolf within her mind's eye, quietly observing the situation, just as she noticed the look of concern mixed with confusion and excitement on the Doctor's new face. And as Rose noticed all of these things, her mind began processing them all at once. She had questions, so many burning questions.

"Am I a Time Lord, then?" She asked, the words tumbling from her lips as fast as they could speak as they tried impossibly to keep up with the increased pace of her mind. "I mean, if I regenerated—Can I—Oh, and what about—And the Wolf said—But then I-" the words cut off with a piercing cry as Rose clutched at her head. There were so many thoughts in her mind, and she couldn't keep up with them all. How could one person think so many things at once? It wasn't right. This insanity would surely destroy her.

The Doctor quickly grabbed the sides of her head, turning it so that she was staring into his green eyes, his hands on either side of her own as they clutched at her temples. "Focus, Rose. Look at me. Focus on me. Clear your mind."

The frantic wave of thoughts began to slow as she forced herself to stare into his strange new green eyes. She focused on the hint of time and the swirl of the universe that she could just make out within their depths, allowing her mind to think of nothing but that until it was calm and peaceful once more.

Once Rose relaxed, she was able to look away from the Doctor once more and he removed his hands from her head just as she removed her own. She looked at him questioningly, hesitant to ask more questions lest her mind take off again.

"Your mind has been expanded suddenly," he answered her frightful look in gentle tones. "You've been living with a human mind for so long now. It's all you know. Yours will be more like mine now. The sudden expansion has come as a shock, but you'll get used to it eventually. Well, you probably will."

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It just fell right back into his face.

"I'm not sure how to explain the difference," he began. "I haven't exactly known anything different than this, but think of your brain as being like a computer. A computer processor in the old days could only run one process at a time. When something new needed to happen, the current process is either paused or completed before the next one can run. Newer processors have multiple cores, allowing them to run multiple processes at a time. Your mind has just been upgraded from a single core processor to one with hundreds of cores, far more powerful than any Earth computer from your time."

Rose blinked blankly at him, her knowledge of computers not quite advanced enough to follow his description.

The Doctor sighed audibly, then tried to simplify further, "The ability to process hundreds of thoughts all at the same time has just been granted to you. It is a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it. Just, try to concentrate on one thought at a time, and the rest will just keep running in the background, waiting until you're ready to examine them. Your brain really is like a giant, magnificent computer." The Doctor smiled proudly at his metaphor.

Rose blinked unamusedly at him once more, but she took his advice and tried to consciously focus on only a single thought. As she did so, she could feel all of the others pushed into the background, whirring about as they were processed but distinctively less prevalent than before. This was going to take some time to get used to. She had a feeling that it would be a while before she'd get the hang of it and be able to carry on a coherent conversation without other stray thoughts working their way in. No wonder the Doctor was always jumping topics all over the place, if he felt anything close to this mental chaos.

Rose closed her eyes in concentration for a moment before picking out the first question that came to mind. "So am I a Time Lord or something, then? If I'm no longer human and I've got a mind like yours?"

The Doctor pulled out a bronze device with a green light on the end and a familiar whirring noise filled the room as he waved it about her. He had a new sonic screwdriver, Rose realized. Once the sonic sound stopped, he pulled it up to examine it and claw-like contraptions emerged on either side of the green light.

He answered after a moment of introspection, "You're not a Time Lord, or Time Lady in the case of a female. But your genetics have been altered by the time energy. At the foundation of your being, you are still human. But you've been altered so much that you'd no longer register as human to even the most advanced biological scanners. Maybe a human hybrid. Your DNA has been augmented, and it now vaguely resembles Time Lord TNA. But it's still human. But it's Time Lord-esque."

"You sound just about as confused as I feel," Rose commented when he seemed to have simply run out of words, apparently a near-impossible feat no matter what body of his.

"You have no idea," the Doctor ran his hands through his hair with frustration. Rose noted with a pang of sadness that this action no longer caused his hair to be adorably mussed; instead, it simply fell right back into place across his face. "You suddenly appear on my TARDIS while we're in the Time Vortex-something that should be completely impossible to do, mind you, not even to mention the fact that you had to have hopped across the Void to do so—and then you've got the power of time about you, and you basically regenerate. You gave me a right fright, you did. Of course I'm confused. I'm downright flabbergasted."

"So, what am I, then?" Rose asked, determinedly focused on this topic.

"I don't know, exactly. You're truly one of a kind, Rose Tyler. Nobody else in existence quite like you. Well, there is this one woman..." he trailed off, thinking that it may not be the best idea to bring up River Song at a time like this. "Anyway, you're somewhat genetically similar but completely different in most ways. Basically, if I had to compare you, I'd say you're closest to the Gallifreyan species. The species that the Time Lords came from. And you're still a lot different from them."

"So what does that mean for me then?"

"A species designation doesn't even begin to cover it, Rose. And I can only analyze your genetics, not whatever this power is that you've got now. But it does look as though you've stopped aging. Your cells seem to be fairly regenerative, restoring themselves at a frantic pace. You won't regenerate, I don't think, but based on the pace of cellular regrowth, you can probably recover from most injuries remarkably fast. That doesn't mean you can't die, though," he pointed at her with a meaningful look.

"Okay, I got it, no being reckless," she said, adding quietly, "like you're one to talk."

"Oi! I heard that!"

"Good."

The Doctor smirked at her. It was good to see some of the patented Rose Tyler stubbornness showing through after the pain and rage that he had witnessed recently from her.

"I suspect you'll have to discover most of the other changes on your own."

"Yeah," Rose agreed reluctantly. She was afraid of that.

"So, will you tell me how you ended up here?" the Doctor asked eagerly, surprised that he was able to keep his curiosity at bay for this long.

A look of complete and utter pain crossed across Rose's face as she remembered the recent events in the other universe. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying. It was all that she could do to shake her head 'no'.

"Okay, later then," the Doctor backtracked quickly, noticing the hurt that the subject caused. "Just—tell me, are you okay?"

"Physically, yes," she replied tonelessly.

He nodded, understanding that her response meant the same thing as his frequent "I'm always all right" responses.

"How long was I out?" Rose asked, trying to change the topic as she slowly moved to get out of the bed.

"About three days," the Doctor replied, keeping a watchful, worried eye on her as she shakily stood up, keeping hold on the edge of the bed to support herself.

Rose nodded and looked down at herself. She was still in the same clothes that she had been in during the Torchwood battle, although her shoes had been removed. Her clothes were ripped, charred, and bloody, although her skin was perfectly flawless underneath the rips that should have indicated massive gashes. She felt disgusting and although she had slept for three days, exhaustion still dragged at her bones. Grief, frustration, and anger lingered just on the edge of Rose's mind, threatening to consume her once more. She suddenly felt claustrophobic and wanted nothing more than to be left alone to her grief.

"Could I have some time alone to clean up then?" Rose asked the Doctor, looking pointedly towards the door as she just barely held herself together.

"Oh yes, right! I'll just be in the console room if you need me," he hesitated for a moment, reluctant to leave Rose's side so soon after her reappearance. But when she continued to glare pointedly at him, he did as he agreed and left her room, closing the door quietly behind him. He leaned against it in the hallway, closing his eyes as he tried to reign in all of the thoughts and emotions that he was feeling. Within the room, Rose sank to the floor, hugging her knees to herself as she cried silently for her dead husband and the confusing situation that she had now found herself in.


	11. Choices

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: It seems as though I need to apologize for another large delay in posting. Life has a tendency to interfere with those things that I'd rather be doing. I've also been rewriting and rewriting this chapter and the next one (which will definitely be the last) for a while now, trying to improve upon my writing skills and to perfect the story to the best of my ability. Please let me know what you think! The next and final chapter will be posted shortly.

* * *

**Chapter 11 – Choices**

Rose took her time composing herself, focusing on the comforting hum and new-found music of the TARDIS in an attempt to soothe her fragile emotions. She was forced to relinquish her ripped and charred clothing from the other universe in exchange for flared jeans, a simple vest, and a dark pink hoodie of the style straight from her past. The clothes no longer fit her quite right and the fabric rubbed unpleasantly against the nerve endings of this newly-changed body, but no other options easily presented themselves from within her old room of the TARDIS.

Unwilling to venture out of the safety of the once-familiar room towards this unknown Doctor, Rose sluggishly examined the objects in her old room, inspecting the pictures on the walls like windows into her old life. Once upon a time, she fought with every ounce of her being to return to that life of adventures, saving the universe side-by-side with the Time Lord Doctor. Now, those amazing sights and extraordinary situations paled in comparison to the brilliant (if somewhat domestic) life that Rose and the metacrisis Doctor had shared.

Rose clutched at the trinkets on her necklace like a lifeline, her Doctor's wedding ring snug within the palm of her hand. Grief clawed at a spot just behind her chest, making it a struggle simply to breathe. When she closed her eyes, Rose could still see memories of them playing against her eyelids. With each passing second, the visions faded slightly though. Details forgotten, sounds unheard, pieces unseen, emotions skewed by ruthless doubt. Rose's broken heart ached for reassurance that the memories were more than just a fanciful illusion. It would be almost comforting to be surrounded by the familiarity of their home on Pete's World, with the ability to crawl into her own bed and properly grieve the passing of her husband, surrounded by the scent of him that still clung to their sheets. The blissful photos on the walls of their home would anchor her memories to reality. A modest funeral would properly mark his passing in an attempt to gain closure, and Rose could be wrapped up tightly in her mother's comforting embrace as she wept for the brilliant future that would now never come to pass.

And her Mum! Rose's mum, dad, and brother were still within that other universe. She didn't even know if they had survived the battle. Even if they had, days would pass in that other universe with Rose and her Doctor's names plastered across lists of the missing. Rescue efforts and even Jackie Tyler's sheer force of will would produce no results in finding them. Eventually, her family would be forced to accept the fact that Rose and the Doctor died on that Dalek ship, defending the Earth for one last time. The difficult task of putting together a funeral would fall to Rose's mum and recently-found father. They would bury empty coffins, the nonexistent remains of their own child and her beloved husband. Rose's brother Tony, too young to fully comprehend the finality of death, would spend weeks asking after them, a constant reminder of grief to her parents. Or possibly, he was just old enough to be haunted by the realization of death's presence for years to come. The innocence of his childhood corrupted by the untimely demise of the big sister that took care of him like a second mother and the Doctor, his big brother that told the best bedtime stories in the universe.

Rose's knees painfully hit the ground as her own muscles gave out from underneath her. Her family, if alive, suffered these consequences due to her own childish decision to hop universes. Just to yell and scream at the original Doctor, at whom she barely even recognized any more.

"Take me back," Rose brokenly whispered to the Wolf in her mind, her words spoken aloud to the empty room.

"_I can't,_" The Wolf replied within her mind. "_You made your choice to come back here. I sealed up the last crack between the universes as you came through it._"

Tears leaked from Rose's eyes as the finality of her decision passed over her. Still, she replied defiantly, "No. That can't be it. My family thinks I'm dead! I have to go back! I have to let them know I'm okay. I've crossed over this many times, I can do it once more!"

"_There's nothing that can be done now. They will think that you died a hero's death, saving the world. Isn't that what you humans would consider to be glorious?_"

"I don't care about that! Take me back!" Rose shouted, pounding her fist against the ground for emphasis.

The Wolf did not reply again, but a wave of pity not her own washed over Rose's mind.

The silent response sparked a fire within Rose. _She _was the Bad Wolf. She alone controlled the power of time. She should be able to bend and shape the universes to _her_ will.

The anger triggered a switch in her mind, and Rose's body was consumed once more with golden tendrils of time. The power raced like wildfire through her veins, painfully boiling her blood at the same time that it fondly caressed every inch of her. In this new body, the golden fire became intoxicating instead of solely painful. This body was built to harness the power of Time.

Rose closed her eyes, anger momentarily forgotten as she embraced the power of the Wolf. Brilliantly-glistening vein-like images fanned out on the back of her eyelids, and Rose's breath caught in her chest at the amazing sight.

"_Timelines,_" the Wolf whispered.

Multiple different timelines spread out before her, each a different color and all with different beginnings. Potential choices created an enormity of forks in the lines, branching each off into dozens of different possibilities. Each line intersected at some point with the timeline directly in the center of her vision. It started as a bright pink at the beginning, then slowly morphed along its line until it glowed a magnificent golden color, tinged just slightly with a pinkish hue. While the other lines were fairly easy to focus on, this one faded in and out of focus, constantly rewriting itself as Rose watched. It stretched out farther than most of the lines, and just trying to make sense of its enormous amount of shifting branches threatened to give Rose a pounding migraine. A few of the other lines wrapped so tightly around the golden one that its color almost winked completely out of existence, but the shortest line of all, a pale blue one, melded perfectly with it for the briefest amount of time before completely disappearing.

The timelines abruptly vanished as Rose's eyes flew open with surprise.

"But that's..." Rose said aloud with some amazement.

"_Yes_," the Wolf replied sadly. "_That is your metacrisis Doctor, and the golden line is your own._"

"But it's all fuzzy and keeps changing! Why can't I just see what my choices are?"

"_No one should know their own future with such certainty. But, since you are so adamant about having your way, I will make one path clear to you._"

Rose's eyes snapped shut once more, almost as if forced. Panic rushed through her for a brief moment, and then the shining timelines appeared once more behind her eyelids, spreading out like brightly colored pathways amongst the darkness of space. The image zoomed in to a small portion of the fuzzy, shifting golden line and a single branch slid into clear focus. Rose's choice to either burn through this new-found power in an attempt to return to Pete's World or to simply leave it be and stay in this universe. The result of leaving well enough alone still blurred uncomfortably within her vision, but the other path remained perfectly clear. It flared brightly, then ended suddenly as though its end had been sucked straight into a vacuum of nothingness.

"_And that's exactly what will happen_," the Wolf replied firmly. "_You would burn through this power so quickly, trying to crack into that other universe while your atoms linger in a state of limbo without a way to return, until you had no other option but to fling yourself into the Void without an escape route, lest you destroy the entire multiverse with your attempt._"

Rose slowly opened her eyes with resignation. The boiling in her blood dulled as though her very veins were suddenly filled with ice water. The golden hues surrounding her body gradually faded into nothing, accompanied by a depressing sensation of loss from having held onto something so wonderful. It suddenly became a terrifying fact that it would be so easy to become addicted to this power, even Rose had never wanted to hold it in the first place.

Morose, the young woman slowly stood up from the floor. As she looked around her room, the bright pink walls seemed to be screaming at her, rapidly boxing her in as the pictures along the walls mocked her inability to return to those that she loved. A piercing anxiety steadily built within her chest, her heart racing and lungs constricting until Rose was forced to throw herself out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Leaning against the door to her past, she closed her eyes, focusing on taking deep breaths to calm herself.

Once her breathing had calmed somewhat, Rose set out with determination to explore the TARDIS. The Doctor taught her long ago that the best cure for grief and anger was to distract yourself with adventure and to indulge in curiosity. She wandered down the corridors, her hand trailing aimlessly along the walls to receive an appreciatively comforting hum from the TARDIS. The orange hallways barely resembled the more organic ones that she knew and the rooms had definitely been rearranged, but Rose still managed to find the pool, the massive library, and even accidentally wandered into one of her favorite gardens. Even the rooms themselves had shifted and morphed, though. Her own room was quite possibly the only one that had remained unchanged throughout the years, preserved as though it was trapped within its own little time bubble.

Rose may have been slightly trying to avoid the Doctor as she roamed the TARDIS hallways. There were too many complications associated with him. Although he looked and acted differently, he was, in essence, still the same man that she had fallen in love with when she was only nineteen. The same man that taught her of her own strength, courage, and importance in the universe. However, this was also the same man that decided he no longer wanted to travel with her, stranding her in another universe with another version of himself just to get rid of her. She fell in love with his half-human, metacrisis self, similar to how she once had to fall back in love with his tenth version after he regenerated. But the metacrisis was his own person, separate from the original Doctor no matter how much they each argued against it.

The TARDIS hummed angrily in Rose's mind, protesting against her current train of thought about the Doctor. Rose suddenly walked straight into the console room, whereas only a second ago she had been standing in the middle of a hallway. The blonde woman glared at the ceiling with annoyance at her "punishment" before the sight of the room stopped her dead in her tracks. Massive in size, the entire console room resembled a brightly-lit, orange-colored, spindly, magical world. Rose had once thought of the TARDIS as a magical machine, and this décor definitely held up to that description. It looked as though it belonged in a fairy tale, complete with its mad magician spinning around the console and happily flicking switches. It hardly resembled the console room that Rose once knew by heart, the one that had been her home and had once filled her dreams on a nightly basis. She had never even considered the idea of the TARDIS being able to change the beloved room, and Rose felt a pang of grief that the room she loved so much had changed so drastically while she'd been gone. It mirrored the changes that the Doctor had gone through, and Rose wondered if the Doctor had really changed this drastically as well.

Rose took a few deep breaths as she processed her feelings about the new room, then slowly made her way down a set of stairs to a shiny glass floor that surrounded the console and time rotor. The Doctor spun around to face her, his arms swinging out wide as his footing slid on the glass floor, causing him to lose his balance slightly. This regeneration obviously had some coordination problems.

"So," The Doctor gestured around himself with a wide grin. "New console room. What do you think?"

"You redecorated," Rose commented as she looked around. The bright colors and whimsical feel grated unpleasantly on her currently-fragile mood. "I don't like it."

The Doctor's mouth opened and closed a couple of times, before replying with indignation. "Oi! The old girl's just as good as before, I'll have you know. Besides, that's my line."

Rose ignored his comment and continued to examine the room, looking everywhere but at the Doctor. She walked around the console, gently caressing it to earn a pleased hum from the TARDIS and a reverent look from the Doctor that went unseen. She'd almost forgotten how much she missed this place.

When Rose had walked full circle around the time rotor, ending up next to the Doctor, she glanced tentatively up at him to see that he was intently, if curiously, watching her.

"So, what now, Rose Tyler?"The Doctor asked with a contemplative look.

Rose's heart panged painfully in her chest when she realized that this new voice of the Doctor didn't pronounce her name in the same, warm and lilting tone that used to send chills down her spine. But he did pose a good question. What does one do with their life when presented with a new start? Rose had no idea.


	12. Farewell

Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: Well, this is it! The last chapter of Fury of the Wolf. It's been great fun writing this story, and I want to extend a very big thank you to all of you that have been reading it! I am so glad that I've been able to share this with you. Just so you know, there will be a sequel that will be posted as soon as I've had sufficient time to complete its planning stages. Until then, thank you and farewell.

* * *

**Chapter 12 – Farewell**

Rose stared morosely through the glass floor around the TARDIS console, idly examining the cables running underneath it. The Doctor rested against the console next to her, shifting his limbs about awkwardly as he tried his best to be patient and allow Rose her silence. The young woman barely noticed his restless movements, her gaze focused on a bright yellow wire just below the surface of the floor as though it held the answers to all of her problems. Her mind whirled frantically, filled with a million different thoughts, all swirling about like eddies in a tumultuous ocean just before the storm hits. Focusing on a single thought proved to be too difficult. As sorrow spread paralyzingly through her limbs, Rose felt as though she had been lost to that angry sea, her body pulled every which way by the furious currents as she slowly sank further and further into the depths of confusion and despair. She didn't know what to do with herself, how to act around this Doctor that wasn't her Doctor anymore, or how to fix the feelings of loss and emptiness that filled her heart.

Unable to bear the silence that encouraged her melancholy, Rose said aloud the first thing that came to mind, "I can't go back."

Still staring at the floor, Rose missed the look of empathy that crossed the Doctor's young face.

"What happened, Rose?" The Doctor asked solemnly. "I don't need to know everything, but the curiosity is killing me over here. I'm not exactly a patient man, in case you hadn't noticed."

"I'm the Bad Wolf now. Again," Rose tentatively looked up, meeting the Doctor's eyes to see his surprised reaction. He had assumed as much, but her admission still shocked him. She continued in a deadened tone of voice, "I remember the Game Station. Some Daleks from there slipped through to our universe looking for me, for the Bad Wolf. They attacked our Torchwood, and we fought them off as well as we could, but we couldn't hold off an entire Dalek ship. _He_ died fighting the Daleks, trying to save me and everyone else on the planet. This power manifested in me then, but...I was too late to save him."

A wave of grief overpowered Rose, and for a moment she thought that she'd be consumed by tears again. Instead, she grabbed at the tokens on her necklace for support and found the sharp corners of the circuit board biting reassuringly into the palm of her hand.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said sincerely, as though he appeared to share Rose's own grief with her. "What can I do to help?"

"Actually," Rose said with renewed vigor as a thought occurred to her. She hurriedly took off her necklace and removed the circuit board from it, extending it towards the Doctor. "Could you help me figure out what this is? He left it for me."

The Doctor carefully took the tiny, square circuit board from Rose's hand with deliberate motions as to not actually touch her in the process. He whipped out his new sonic screwdriver and scanned it for a moment before replying, "Ah! It's a recording. A holographic message. The TARDIS could play it for you."

Rose nodded her consent, so the Doctor pulled out a couple of wires from a compartment in the console and carefully hooked them into the small circuit board.

He looked up at her before connecting the final wire and said, "I'll just...leave you to this, then."

She nodded again, so he hooked up the final wire and left the console room. A moment later, Rose gasped as a figure appeared, ghost-like, right next to her in the TARDIS. Her Doctor, the human-Time Lord metacrisis in his brown pinstriped suit and blue chucks, stood right before her eyes. He was wearing the exact same thing as when they fought the Daleks, except that his clothes had not yet been tattered by the battle.

The metacrisis Doctor was pixelated and slightly transparent, simply a hologram. Not actually there on the TARDIS, but looking off in the distance at something that didn't exist in this universe. Rose walked around his image reverently, drinking in the sight of him. It calmed her shattered emotions at the same time that it caused her to start trembling with both grief and anticipation.

After a moment, the image of the Doctor focused on Rose. He smiled the smile that he reserved just for her, saying in a familiar, warm voice, "Rose Tyler. We've got a battle with the Daleks approaching, and the way things are looking, I'm fairly sure that I'll have to do something drastic to stop it. Welll, if you're seeing this now, I've already done that something drastic. Hopefully I didn't just trip over a brick or something."

He paused for a moment to contemplate that before his eyes snapped back into focus and he continued quickly, "Anyway, I'll have to make this goodbye quick. I only have a couple of minutes, which I suppose is fairly familiar territory for us. Regrettably."

Rose's heart dropped at the realization that this was just another one of the Doctor's goodbyes. Her Doctor was still dead, his body burned to ashes in the dead of space within a universe not his own. This hologram would be the last time that she'd ever see that him.

The image of the metacrisis Doctor paused to look darkly down at the floor for a moment. Then, he took a deep breath and looked back at Rose. "There are some things that you need to know, Rose. Things that you probably shouldn't know about yet, but I'm the only one that knows them and so I have to pass that knowledge on to you now.

"Rose, these Bad Wolf occurrences haven't just been happening today. I've been seeing those two words a lot recently. Didn't want to worry you. But it's more than that, 'cause I think it has something to do with you this time, not some danger. You've been-" he cut off abruptly with an awkward pause, his hand ruffling his gorgeous hair, leaving it sticking up strangely in places. "Welll, you've been sort of _glowing_ in your sleep. Not all the time, but often enough and increasingly often, at that. And it's a golden glow, almost reminiscent of regeneration energy.

"We discussed the events of the Game Station earlier today, so I'll be blunt about this. I think there may be some residual vortex energy in you. Some sort of link that wasn't fully severed at the Game Station. Now, I have no idea why you're still alive if that's the case, but something's been happening to you, Rose. Something's changing you. You probably haven't noticed, but we've been living in this world for five years now, and you three years longer than that. Time has been passing. Significant chunks of time to humans, in which visible aging should have been occurring. _I've_ even been aging, but not you, Rose Tyler. And as beautiful as you are, I don't think you can chock that all up to good genetics. And when was the last time you've gotten sick or seriously injured for long? You haven't, not since I've been here, at least. Which, when you think about it, is really quite remarkable considering how much trouble we get into on a daily basis...

"Now, this may have nothing to do with Bad Wolf. It could be residual effects from the dimension cannon—which, by the way, you shouldn't have been able to survive. Trust me, I looked at the schematics for that dreadful machine. And really, you're lucky you weren't dissolved into tiny little bits the first time you went through it—Anyway, the medical equipment at Torchwood isn't sophisticated enough to accurately analyze what's happening to you. I've been trying to piece some machinery together, but what I really need is the advanced equipment on the TARDIS."

He shifted from foot to foot anxiously for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly before continuing, "Which brings me to the next part of this conversation." The ghostly image of her husband looked Rose directly in the eyes from where she had wondered over to lean against the railing in the console room.

"Rose, I need you to promise me something. I know you haven't forgiven him, but if I don't make it through this, promise me that you'll find _him_. Me. The other Doctor. If anyone can cross the Void without destroying all of reality to find a single dimensionally-transcendent ship in all of time and space, you can. Find him. I know you don't believe me when I tell you that he didn't want to leave us behind, that he thought he was doing what was right for you and that he will always love you just as much as I do, but it's all true, Rose. And as much as I hate giving you to some other man—well, he's not just some other man. He's me. And I want you to be happy, Rose Tyler. So do that for me, please. Find him, forgive him, and have a fantastic life."

Rose stared at his image with watery eyes, mouth open slightly. For a brief moment, she didn't see the pinstripes, gorgeous spiky hair, and emotive brown eyes. She saw another man in her mind, a soldier in harsh leather with cropped hair and big ears, staring compassionately at her with his beautiful, ice blue eyes.

And then she protested.

"Oh no you don't, Doctor." Rose replied stubbornly, advancing on the image with a glare and a pointed finger.

He knowingly waited for her to finish her rant, rocking back on his heels with a smug grin, his hands clasped patiently behind his back.

"You are not pulling this one on me again, saying goodbye with a hologram. And telling me to go be happy with your other self? You're lucky you're just a hologram right now or I'd probably smack you for that. I'll make my own choices, thank you very much!"

Rose glared at the image of her Doctor, breathing heavily with anger.

He waited silently for a second more, then said, "Now, are you finished?"

Rose stared sheepishly at the ground for a moment. He knew her too well.

"I bet you're just furious with me now, for going and dying and leaving you with this sub-par goodbye and a final request that you don't want to uphold. And it's okay if you don't want to find him. I, of all people, am familiar with the fact that Rose Tyler does what she wants. To be honest, I wouldn't want you to be any other way. But I think that you will someday. Want to find him, that is. And if someday you come to terms with it all and you find him and can forgive the both of us for leaving you so many times, then I want you to be with him. Just...remember that. I want you to be happy, Rose. And honestly, he deserves to be happy, too."

He looked off to the side for a moment, most likely at some device or another. Then, he returned to stare longingly at Rose, saying halfheartedly, "Now, I really should be going. The Daleks are advancing and I've got a teleport device to start building. But I want you to know that this has been the best single life that I ever could have had, even if it hasn't been for very long. 'Cause stuck with you, Rose Tyler, isn't bad at all."

The Doctor shot Rose a cheeky smirk that she couldn't help but return with a watery smile of her own.

"So," he continued, "No regrets, okay? Saving the world is a brilliant way to go, if I do say so myself. And I wouldn't have changed our time together for anything in all of the universes. But I am so sorry that it couldn't be the forever that we'd hoped for."

The Doctor looked at her regretfully before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Now, if it's my last chance to say it, there's something that I need to tell you. Rose Tyler, I love you."

"I love you, too, my Doctor," Rose whispered to the image with a small, teary smile.

Compassion flowed from his eyes and he held Rose's gaze for a moment with a small, regretful smile before turning to the side and reaching for some button that was no longer there. And then, his image faded into nothing.

Rose stared solemnly at the spot where her Doctor's image had been, her mind frantically scrambling to process everything that had happened. An invisible weight seemed to press down on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. Gasping for air, she had the distinct feeling that something was clawing its way painfully into her chest, digging out her very heart as it went. It was then that the walls she had been tenuously holding up around herself collapsed. Rose began sobbing hysterically, her arms wrapped tightly around her torso to physically hold herself together when she couldn't do so emotionally.

Instantly, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. The floppy-haired Doctor pulled her close to his body in a tight embrace. Rose curled up against his chest, her hands nestled under her chin and her head pressed against his body. The steady thrum of his two hearts reverberated through her and she found it to be an old, familiar sound that she could take comfort in. It was a strange sensation to take comfort from essentially the same person that you were grieving for and mad at all at the same time. But in her fragile emotional state, Rose couldn't protest. She didn't want to. She needed all of the comfort that she could get, any lifeline that she could grab a hold of to reassure herself that she was still here, still alive, and still a functioning part of the universe.

The Doctor held Rose tightly to him as she grieved, rubbing her back comfortingly and unwilling to let her go. He reveled in the sensations of being able to hold her once more. Had it not been for the pain she was in, he would have chocked it all up to being a happy dream. But she was actually here, back in his universe and practically immortal to boot. And yet, he couldn't be happy about it. Not in these circumstances. He couldn't bear to see Rose hurting like this. Couldn't bear to see this grief and anger in his once-joyful pink and yellow human. He recognized that she blamed him for her situation, but he would gladly take the blame if it helped her. He had convinced himself for years now that enough time had passed, that he no longer pined after the fantastic human known as Rose Tyler and that this new body no longer yearned for her. But even after all of these years apart, despite his new body and her new changes, the Doctor's hearts still beat inexplicably for Rose. He had been a fool to think that the passing of time or even a regeneration could change that fact.

The greenish glow of the time rotor washed over them as Rose grieved, and she barely noticed the differences between this version of the Doctor and the last. They fit together differently, her head no longer tucked neatly underneath his chin, but it was not uncomfortable. With the double-beating of his hearts in her ear and the caring way that he embraced her, Rose realized that it would be so easy to just let this Doctor back into her life. He was still the Doctor, after all. It would be almost simple to adapt to this new incarnation, to travel with him in the TARDIS and live a fantastic life with him like her husband had suggested. And if she really had stopped aging as they thought, she could actually be with the Doctor forever this time. She would just merge back into her old life with him and after many years of adventuring, she'd eventually forget about the little blip that had been her life with the metacrisis in the other universe. After such a long life, he would be nothing more than a passing dream, the memories foggy and skewed with doubt that said it had ever even happened. But that was the last thing that Rose wanted to do. She had been through so much and had earned her happy ending with the Doctor that had died aboard that Dalek ship. It would be a wrongful affront to her Doctor to just forget about him and their wonderful life. So, as easy as it would be, Rose couldn't let herself be absorbed back into this world. She would just have to be strong and find her own way in this new life that she had been unwillingly presented with.

Taking a deep breath, Rose gently backed out of the Doctor's embrace, wiping the tears from her blotchy eyes. He let go of her, looking awkwardly at the floor for a moment as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Doctor..." Rose began hesitantly.

The tone of Rose's voice caused the Doctor to look up alarmingly at her. She was going to leave him again.

Rose opened her mouth to say something, but he quickly cut her off, rambling suddenly, "I've got these companions now. Amy and Rory. The Ponds. They've been traveling with me for a while, off and on. They're not here now, but I was just about to swing by and pick them up. Heard word of some nasty business going in the Isop galaxy, thought maybe we'd check it out. You could, I dunno...you could come with me?" He shrugged, trying to look nonchalant while his two hearts worked double-time, waiting for her response as though the fate of the universe depended on it.

A spark of anger lit up Rose's eyes, and the Doctor backtracked quickly, "I don't have to pick up the Ponds. It could just be us for a bit. We don't even have to go to the Isop galaxy, it can wait. Time machine, you know. We'll go somewhere else, anywhere you want. Anywhere in time and space. Just you and me. The Doctor and Rose Tyler. In the TARDIS."

A resounding crack echoed throughout the console room as the palm of Rose's hand met the Doctor's face in a slap that could easily rival one of Jackie Tyler's. He quickly pressed a hand against the burning skin, trying his best not let Rose see the emotional hurt that it caused him. His Rose had never once directed such ill feelings toward him, not even when he'd been a jerk with that whole Reinette business.

"Right," the Doctor said painfully as he stretched out his jaw in an attempt to alleviate the sting. "Guess I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you bloody well shouldn't have!" Rose shouted at him, her cheeks flushed red with anger. "Do you have any idea what I'm going through right now? You left me on a beach in bloody Norway in an alternate universe after I had spent years of my life and most of my sanity figuring out a way to get back to you. Then, you left another version of you in my care, waited 'til I was distracted, then _disappeared_! I could understand you doing that, what with your tendency to leave me behind and make my decision to stay for me. But you did so without as much as an explanation or even a goodbye when you could have made the time for it! Did I really mean so little to you?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, but Rose's glare stopped him in his tracks and she continued speaking, "You left us with nothing, Doctor. Dropped us off without anything to our names. But we worked through it. We built a wonderful life for ourselves. We were supposed to grow old together and never see you again. But then the Daleks came looking for me, and we had nothing to fight them with. No sonic, no TARDIS, just ourselves. So the metacrisis – the Doctor that you left me with, the one that I married five years ago – he didn't survive. He died saving me, saving the Earth, and saving that universe. Then suddenly I had all of this power running through me and these memories of killing you and the Daleks back at the Game Station. So I did it again, and I destroyed them all. But I couldn't bring _him_ back. And all of this _just_ happened for me. I've been changed, I'm not even human anymore! I lost my husband! I lost my family, my home, my belongings, my universe. And you just expect us to pick up where we left off? 'The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS as it should be'? No. I won't have any of that, Doctor. I need time to grieve and to figure out who I am now, and I can't do that with you hoverin' around, offering me adventures out of pity. I can't slip into that old life of mine and just expect all of this to just go away! You decided that you didn't want me around anymore when you left me on that beach again, and I made my decision by choosing the other Doctor to spend my life with. So no, I won't travel with you after everything that you've done to me."

Rose knew that the words were harsh, but she was furious with the situation and he was the only one here to blame besides herself. Some nonsense about hurting the ones you love the most flashed briefly through Rose's mind, but her anger quickly buried it. The Doctor couldn't bring himself to protest her words, because he agreed with them himself. He had never seen himself worthy as being in Rose Tyler's company after all of the ill deeds that he had done throughout his life. So he just stared back at her with solemn eyes.

"I'll be seeing you, Doctor," Rose said briskly as she backed further away from the Doctor.

Before he could fully comprehend what was happening, golden tendrils of time burst forth from within Rose, lapping at her skin like the burning caress of flames. Right before his eyes, her entire form split apart into tiny particles that mingled with the golden fire, before even that faded into nothing. And just like that, Rose Tyler was gone again.

The Doctor let out a sharp breath as the reality of what had just happened hit him hard in the chest. His fantastic Rose Tyler had been through so much in the span of a few days. She lost his other self, the metacrisis that had elected to stay with her in Pete's World. She fought the Daleks and won, permanently became the not-quite-human Bad Wolf – a goddess of Time. Then, she propelled herself through the void and into his TARDIS, leaving her family and life behind only to find a new Doctor, and new TARDIS to boot. And now, she had disintegrated herself, hopefully to reappear elsewhere in time and space.

Rose's last words rang throughout the Doctor's mind as he struggled to come back to his senses. _I'll be seeing you, Doctor_.

_Not a final goodbye then_, he thought with a glimmer of hope.

"Well, then!" The Doctor clapped his hands together as a small smile spread across his face. "Not if I see you first!"

The Doctor slammed a fist down on the console, did a little spin, and excitedly pulled down the main lever. The TARDIS shot out of the vortex, dematerializing somewhere in time and space.

Elsewhere in the universe, a golden glow manifested out of seemingly thin air, followed by the stumbling form of a young, blonde-haired woman within it. As the gold faded from around her, she examined her surroundings with a mild curiosity. She may have just been through hell and back again, but there was now a whole wide universe at her disposal. A new start, however unwanted it may be. After a moment, Rose nodded to herself with determination, picked a direction at random, and took off running, starting this new beginning in the best way that she knew how.

* * *

This chapter of Rose's life may have concluded, but her story is far from over.

_Rose's story will continue in_

_**Running of the Wolf**_


End file.
